By BRENT MARTIN
St. Joseph Post
A state senator who represents the greater St. Joseph area wants to keep property taxes in check by tying real estate assessments to the rate of inflation.
Sen. Tony Luetkemeyer of Parkville says his legislation was prompted by the experience of Missouri property owners the past couple of tax cycles.
“We’ve seen, really around the state, some dramatic increases in people’s real estate property assessments, which controls the tax rate that you pay,” Luetkemeyer tells KFEQ/St. Joseph Post.
Luetkemeyer proposes capping the amount real estate assessments can rise at 5% or the consumer price index, whichever is greater.
“Really what we’re talking about is you can’t raise someone’s taxes by more than the rate of inflation.”
Luetkemeyer says too many Missouri homeowners have seen huge increases in their real estate assessments. Luetkemeyer says the sharp increases drive up property taxes and threaten homeowners from being able to keep their homes.
“Particularly for people who are on fixed incomes, whether they are elderly folks who are retired, whether it’s somebody who is disabled and not able to work,” Luetkemeyer says. “People on fixed incomes, when they see their property taxes skyrocket like that, you’re literally talking about a situation where the government is forcing somebody out of their home and that is unacceptable and we should never by okay with that.”
Luetkemeyer proposes keeping the assessments in line with the rate of inflation, arguing that if the assessment goes up in a hot real estate market, they will never go down, even if the real estate market turns cold.
“My fear is is that whenever real estate values maybe dip back down, oftentimes the assessors will not go out and lower people’s tax rates,” Luetkemeyer says. “Usually, when you see assessments, they’re only going up, you don’t really ever see them come back down. So, my concern is that in some point in the future, these assessments are going to be overvalued and people are going to be over taxed on the property that they have.”
Luetkemeyer says many Missourians from all over the state have seen huge spikes in the assessment of their homes, which will translate into higher property taxes.