As court battles over property values drag on, Jackson County caps 2025 increases
Owners of Jackson County real estate can rest easier. They won’t be facing huge increases in their assessment notices this year. County Executive Frank White Jr. is capping increases at 15%, no matter how much Zillow says the actual market value of people’s homes rose.
White and county assessment director Gail McCann Beatty made the announcement Thursday, albeit with reservations.
Capping increases distorts the property tax system, they said, shifting the tax burden to those whose market values stayed flat, fell or rose less than 15%, they said.
But at a time when the base level for the 2025 reassessment values are still being adjudicated in court, they said it was best to inject some stability into a volatile situation.
“The decision, made after consultation with legal counsel and leading experts, reflects the only responsible course of action left as the State Tax Commission (STC) continues to shift rules, issue contradictory mandates and leaves local governments exposed to legal and financial harm,” the county said in a news release announcing the decision..
Last month, Jackson County lost the lawsuit it filed challenging a State Tax Commission order to reduce property values on most parcels that increases in excess of 15% in 2023.
The tax commission said rollbacks on the county’s valuations were necessary because the county failed to properly notify taxpayers of their rights to appeal those hikes. State law say property owners can request an interior inspection if their assessments increase more than 15%.
The county is considering whether to appeal the ruling. The county said that in a separate case the tax commission’s rollback order last August had previously been ruled “unenforceable in a separate proceeding.”
Property values in Missouri are set for tax purposes every other year.
In the most recent ruling, Senior Judge Jacqueline A. Cook upheld the tax commission’s decision that ordered the county to cap property reassessment increases on about 200,000 of the 238,000 real estate parcels whose values increased more than 15% during the 2023 reassessment cycle.
The county has about 300,000 real estate parcels. Some saw increases lower than 15%, and some fell in value.
But the ruling did not state what that rollback might mean to individual taxpayers who have already paid their tax bills in 2023 and 2024 based on those valuations.
Taxpayers will receive notices about their assessed property values by the state-mandated deadline on June 15, the county said.
Beatty and White said the state’s current assessment system needs to be reformed because of contradictory rules that make it difficult for counties to comply.
“Assessors don’t determine whether a property will exceed the 15% threshold until after the assessor has gone to the property, affirmed the physical characteristics, the property’s condition and external influences that may impact value,” their news release said. “That means the STC is effectively demanding two physical exterior inspections and an interior inspection, all after January 1, for hundreds of thousands of parcels. It’s not just unworkable, it’s a logistical and legal contradiction.”
This story was originally published April 17, 2025 at 3:33 PM.
