Some Voters Yell Foul Ball on Mailing of Tax Bills

According to St. Louis County officials, property tax bills for residential and commercial property owners will go out in the mail on Monday.

Property tax bills for most residents in St. Louis County will increase this year due to many school districts raising their tax rates, as well as the Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District (MSD) restoring a tax that it had not charged for the last two years. The major factor for the increase this year is that 21 of 23 school districts have raised their rates, with the exception of the Ferguson - Florissant and Lindbergh school districts. The largest increases were 21.77 percent in Maplewood, 5.33 percent in Brentwood, and 14.74 in Webster Groves.

According to two St. Louis County employees who asked to remain anonymous for fear of retribution by their supervisors, the county’s director of revenue, Eugene Leung, ordered that tax bills be held until after election day to shield county executive Charlie Dooley from potential voter anger. County officials deny those allegations and claim that the delay was due to disputes over some rates that the state auditor needed to resolve. However, Leung confirmed last Thursday (November 4) that he had held up publishing the tax bills, but said he had done so because the state auditor needed to certity several rates. But, Susan Montee, the state auditor, said that St. Louis County does not have to wait for her office to certify tax rates. According to Montee, “I couldn’t hold up anything if I wanted to.”

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Is there more to this story? Sure is and you can read the entire article at:
http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/metro/article_66f6b3b8-c221-5181-9c8c-166ab68b131e.html?mode=story

Real Estate Escrow Questioned

A resident of the Robinwood West subdivision off Fee Fee Road north of Creve Coeur on Tuesday angrily complained to the St. Louis County Council that county revenue employees took away his ability to make directors of a community improvement district for his subdivision feel the sting of his and some other residents' protested property taxes. John Strake, the resident, said the county under state law should have kept the money in a separate account and away from the district for at least 90 days.

The district, established in 1999, levies taxes with voters' approval to pay for upkeep of the 478-house subdivision's common ground and facilities and for improvements to them. The district has been the subject of several lawsuits.

Residents Upset On RE Tax Assessments

My real estate tax has more than quadrupled since I bought my home; my RE taxes are now significantly more than my Missouri state income tax! And as I trust you have noticed, most often RE taxes increase with no voter approval and little awareness ... instead we are each at the mercy of St. Louis County.

Have you taken a serious look at your RE taxes lately? You should! Or are they under your radar, partially hidden in monthly mortgage/escrow payments? One simple thing that we each should do is personally evaluate our homes 2009 assessed value, now available on line at http://revenue. stlouisco. com/IAS.

You can view both last year's and this year's appraised values, the homes that were used as comps to "guestimate" your home's value, as well as the detail specs of your home ... also used to determine your assessed value. I found it especially enlightening to view all homes on my block ... easy to do if you specify "Clarkson Woods" in your search criteria (lower left corner of your screen), rather than your name or address or locator #. You will likely find significant inconsistencies (even on your own block) and perhaps errors ... for example I found that my lot size was over-stated 18%.

One recourse ... you can call the County at 314-615-4230 with concerns ... they will consider adjusting flagrant errors immediately, but most likely will recommend that you schedule an appeal in May after you receive your official assessment notice.

Don't let the assessment reductions for 09 lull you into complacency ... reductions average 9% while most actual values have dropped significantly more. Yet some in our subdivision got no reduction ... or even an increase ... likely due to an "unlucky draw" on the "comps" (comparable home sales in 2007 and 2008) selected by the county to determine valuation.The broader problem is that Missouri 's real estate assessment system is antiquated, inconsistent and unfair to many. Escalating RE taxes are causing serious hardships, especially seniors and low-income families.

If each property owner will focus on their individual assessment and fight back, and perhaps get involved in broader efforts to at least band-aid the system in use, we will eventually get to a fairer system of taxation.

Sen. Jane Cunningham is deeply involved in this issue. Let her hear from you. There is also a citizen's organization doing significant work ... their website is a learning experience for us all ... WWW.STLCOUNTYTAXREL IEFNOW.COM

Charlie Dooley commits unarmed robbery on STL County

An article in the St. Louis Post Dispatch on Dec. 4 . . . .

At this time last year, as housing values plummeted by 25%, property owners in St. Louis County recieved their "love letter" from Charlie Dooley and his Dem collegues on the County Council in the form of a Property Tax Bill that increased everyone's bill by an average of 25%.

People!...that is a net 50% increase, as housing VALUES decreased by 25%. This is clearly baldfaced unarmed robbery on the citizenry of St. Louis County by our esteemed leader, Charlie Dooley and his Dem majority on the County Council. If you tried to appeal this new rate last year in CHarlies "kangaroo court", you went through the farce that is known as their Property Tax Appeal system. You were luckey to not get an increase with those turkeys.

So, comes 2008 and the continued downturn on home values and those that tried to appeal thier taxes this year were told that they could not...your rate could not change for 2 years and you were stuck with another outrageous insult of a bill from the Dems on the County Council.

Why is it their fault you might ask? They had the chance to reduce the rate this year, but kept the same userous money grab rates and assements in place demanding the same amount of money from already economicaly stressed citizens...nice job Dems.

Charlie sat back and smiled a Chesire Cat grin as he racked in the cash from his ill gotten gains.

For the rest of the article, go to: http://www.stltoday.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=6428848

Missouri Tax Relief Discussion on Thurs. March 20

Sarah Haenni with St. Louis County Tax Relief Now will be presenting a talk this Thursday March 20, 2008 7:00 PM at St. Louis County Library, Weber Branch 4444 ,Weber Rd. (63123).

Her presentation is bi-Partisan and will cover the taxing authorities of St. Louis County and how they tax, what is wrong with Missouri property taxes and what is being done. Sarah Haenni will be the guest speaker at the Concord Lemay Township Republican Club meeting.

County's Other BIG Problem - Real Estate Tax Assessments

Sarah Haenni, Chairwoman, St. Louis CountyTax Relief Now, will be making a presentation on how the taxing system works among the various agencies that receive the tax dollars from your real estate taxes. This presentation will be at the Oakville Republican Township Meeting, Thursday Feb 7, 7:PM, at Crusoe's Restaurant/Sports Bar Telegraph Rd. and Baumgartner Rd. 5591 Oakville Shopping Center.

Bring a friend that would like to be more informed on the taxing situation of St. Louis County.

It is important that we communicate to county residents the importance of frequent communication with their representatives and senators for their favorable views towards legislation as described in the legislation presently before the legislators, reference SB 711, HB 1471, HJR & HB 1349. These bills address capping property tax increases, correcting the Hancock amendment so taxing agencies don't skirt around it to increase taxes and several other issues for fair taxation.

Go to Tax Relief Now web site, http://www.stlcountytaxreliefnow.com/, and read about these bills and the other particulars concerning this organization.. This is a bi-partisan state wide issue and we need the favorable help from 200 senators and representatives to get this tax relief legislation passed.

One of the ways this is accomplished is writing to our senators and representatives for their influence with the other 200. We now have a chance with this session of the legislature, so lets not lose this Golden Opportunity!! The St.Louis County Council, as our "representative", should also be hard at work on our behalf with their influence at the state legislature.........so we need to be in contact with our councilman and the council as a whole for their help and ask them to keep us informed of their progress with their influence at he state level.

Real Estate Taxes of Concern to Trustees, Residents

The outlook for a tax reduction may not happen until 2009. Reassessment is done every two years, with no provision for interim action. (Individual appeals, however, can be made, starting in the spring.)

Officials do expect the 2009 reassessment to be nothing like 2007's, in which property values soared 22 percent and ignited angry protests from homeowners. The county's increase last year outstripped the rest of the state, including the counties surrounding St. Louis County.

In the Ferguson-Florissant and Hazelwood districts, assessments increased by about 30 percent. Many other districts saw increases of 20 percent or more. Figures from the St. Louis Association of Realtors show that average and median house sales prices last year declined compared with 2006 in most school districts in the county. However, property owners won't see assessments that reflect the declines until next year.

Under state law, property assessments for Jan. 1, 2007, stay on the books until a reassessment next year, said Eugene Leung, the county's director of revenue. Just because an area's value is dropping does not mean a tax decrease follows. Many jurisdictions can be expected to raise their tax rates if assessments drop.

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Residents Up In Arms Over Real Estate Tax Assesments

The unfairness of the St. Louis County is shown in the manner in which they assess residential properties. Fairness can be elusive, especially when the county taxing authorities are writing and interpreting their own rules on property assessments.

Prior to 1985, residential real estate was assessed at the price paid for the property. The house building industry was successful in getting a St. Louis County senator to submit a bill to change that. Since then residential real property has been assessed at "Fair Market Value" or a percentage of that elusive amount every two years. This creates a "stealth tax" on all residential properties without a vote of the citizens. In effect, this is taxation without representation since the tax assessor is appointed not elected.

It is patently unfair to people who purchased their homes in the past, to arbitrarily decide the value based on what others have sold their homes for. Houses are as different as people and State of Missouri should do something about this injustice to homeowners, especially those on fixed incomes.

The Hancock Amendment was supposed to keep this increase in taxes in line with the CPI, but there are huge holes in the amendment, and the intent of that legislation to limit tax increases to the CPI is routinely abused and ignored by St. Louis County. According to county records, 271,000 homes had increases of more than 15% in the recent reassessment process. That's about 75% of all homes in St. Louis County!

It is time to fight back! Our county legislators aren't going to do anything unless a grass roots movement to demand changes is put forth by county citizens who are carrying the burden of the highest real estate taxes in the state. A recent talk with a state legislator who pointed out that St. Louis County provides 26% of the state's total revenue!

There is a group of pro-active home owners who are working to get the unfair assessments and taxation of residential property changed. Recently this group, which now numbers nearly 1000, has established an internet site; http://www.stlcountytaxreliefnow.com/.

I hope every homeowner who thinks that real estate taxes are out of control will log on to that web site and register your vote against continuing this "picking of our pockets" by St. Louis County!

. . . Jim Keefe, Ballwin