The Clinton Daily Democrat stopped by the Henry County Assessor’s office to talk assessment values, taxes, and what that means to the residents of Henry County. A refresher of “how this works” and some important terms are included in this article (in response to large numbers of questions). Here are the basics:
Levies: taxes collected go, in large part, to the school districts. Upwards of 70% of all money collected by the county fund your schools. The rest is apportioned among the other county entities such as: the Henry County Library, Henry County Road and Bridge, Senior Board, Health Center, Ambulance Districts, etc.
The Hancock Amendment: this important piece of legislation was passed in the early 1980s in Missouri and protects Missourians from gouging. Any county entity that gets money from taxes in the county may only take what they got last year plus the CPI (Consumer Price Index/inflation rate, capped at 5%) plus any value for new construction. What that means for the tax payer is that no matter how much, or how little, your property values go up or down, your taxes should stay within a margin of whatever you paid the previous year. In essence, an assessor cannot just go raising property values just to get more taxes. Conversely, they may not lower them just to decrease taxes either. Not all states have this protection.
The Hancock Amendment does have some loopholes: for instance, there are two levies school districts work with: an operating levy and a debt-service levy. Only one of those is protected through the Hancock Amendment. In some instances,school districts may decrease one levy according to law but push the other one forward to compensate for the “lost” revenue. You might be glad to know that the Clinton School District has decided to roll back both the operating and debt-service levies, which will save the tax payer at the end of the year. Not all schools do this – and most in the State of Missouri tend to take advantage of this, much to the taxpayer’s dismay (and drained pocket-book).
Assessed values: the Henry County Assessor’s office sent out about 6,000 increase notices this year – the average increase was 12% (the range was 5 – 15%, unless you built a new structure). If you didn’t get a notice your values stayed the same or went down. If you got an impact notice from the Assessor’s Office, there are two important categories to look at: the assessed value, and the appraised value. The appraised value is basically the market value of your property, home, etc. If it looks a little low it is because, in general, Henry County’s property values were running on the low side. To be more precise, the “higher-end”properties were running low and the “average” properties were running high (which creates a disparity in tax burdens). The vast majority of properties in Henry County did not increase at all, but rather stayed the same or reduced slightly. Compared to Jackson County, Henry County residents experienced a very mild adjustment and were able to talk to the assessor’s office and resolve matters. There was only one local appearance at the Board of Equalization hearing this year and that person wasn’t even complaining about their appraisal value.
Assessed value is the number you are taxed on. For residential properties that value is 19% of the appraised value (by state statute). So, if your property is appraised at $100,000 than your assessed value will be $19,000 – and it is that number by which your levy rate is applied.
What does this all mean? It means that most of Henry Countians’ taxes are not going to go up – and if they do, it will only be marginal. “I am very pleased with the decision of the Clinton School District to roll back both their levies in the spirit of the Hancock Amendment’s true meaning,” said Henry County Assessor Scott Largent. “It makes it easier to do the job the state has mandated this office with, when county entities cooperate for the good of the citizens – especially to save them money during these tougher economic times. The Clinton School District was the only district in the area we are aware of that did right by the taxpayers; if you see a Clinton School administrator or board member, be sure to tell them ‘Thanks’ because they are one of the few in the state to roll both levies back,” said Largent.
The Assessor’s Office is not responsible for taxes: that is what the levy hearings are for (in August of every year). The Clinton School District’s hearing is August 28 (as mentioned above, however, they are doing the right thing). Windsor and Montrose have already held theirs, and chose not to roll theirs back. The Henry County Library and other entities have rolled theirs back after meeting. It is important to go to those levy hearings, though. Informed citizens are the best defense against many things – especially higher taxes.
