Jackson County tax credits written into law. When homeowners will get money back
Jackson County residents could see lowered property tax payments for the next three years after a proposed tax credit program was written into county law Monday.
Interim Jackson County Executive Phil LeVota announced in Nov. 2025 that he planned to implement three years of tax credits to reimburse residential property owners whose assessed property values rose by more than 15% in 2023. On July 4, while most Jackson County government offices were closed, LeVota signed an executive order directing county staff to implement the credits.
Now, the Jackson County Legislature has voted to officially make the proposal county law, with the same language that appeared on the executive order.
Monday’s legislative vote supports the executive order, giving additional legal strength to the new tax policy as it rolls out.
Around 200,000 Jackson County homeowners who paid residential property taxes reflecting more than a 15% value increase in 2023 could qualify for the program.
Though the ordinance refers to credits on 2025, 2026 and 2027 tax bills, LeVota has said that homeowners will start to see credits on their property tax bills throughout the next three years, which would start in 2026.
This means that homeowners would still have to pay property taxes, but would be directed by the county to pay a lower bill than they otherwise would have, to account for a third of whatever the homeowner allegedly overpaid in 2023.
Former Jackson County residents who overpaid in 2023, but have since moved out of the county, will not be eligible for the tax credits. The county has not released any estimates for the size of the incoming credits.
The tax credits will largely be administered by a different set of county leaders than those who voted to codify them. A new county executive will take office Jan. 1, 2027, along with at least six new county legislators.
Legislative Vice Chair Sean Smith sponsored the ordinance in early June at LeVota’s request. When LeVota signed the accompanying executive order Friday, he released a video message encouraging legislators to “follow his lead” and noting he was “disappointed” to hear some criticizing the program “without offering an alternative.”
Sealed with a vote
Monday’s vote reflects a yearslong debate among legislators regarding how much direct authority the Legislature has to set or approve policy related to property tax assessment.
Legislative Chair Manny Abarca said Monday that he sought a legal opinion from Jackson County Counselor Bryan Covinsky, clarifying the Legislature’s authority to enact policy around tax assessments, before pivoting to supporting the ordinance.
Covinsky argued Monday that since Jackson County does not currently have an assessor, LeVota is acting as county assessor, expanding his authority to enact tax programs.
Covinsky said that the Legislature could not enact ordinances related to assessment policy without the support of the acting county assessor, but since LeVota is working “in conjunction” with the Legislature to pass the tax program, the body is not overstepping its authority by voting on the program.
Smith said that the Legislature is passing the ordinance not as an attempt to gain authority over county tax policy, but rather in obedience of Missouri State Tax Commission’s order to roll back 2023 and 2024 assessments in Jackson County.
He also said that the county charter and county code do not explicitly prohibit the Legislature from approving tax credits.
“We aren’t directing, with this ordinance, anything to be done in assessment,” Smith said. “...Assessment has been ordered to do something by the State Tax Commission. This ordinance is about how we then handle the repercussions of that.”
Legislator Donna Peyton said Monday that while taxing jurisdictions such as school districts and libraries may suffer, she and her colleagues felt compelled to pass the ordinance in order to comply with the State Tax Commission’s original order.
“I truly understand the taxing jurisdictions and the impact that this will have on them,” Peyton said. “However, I do recognize that we have, essentially — through working with our county executive — given our word that this would happen.”
Long-term impacts
Though he voted in favor of the tax credit ordinance Monday, Abarca has been publicly critical of LeVota’s tax program efforts. He alleged at a June forum for county executive candidates that the interim county executive was “withholding information” on the extent of the overtaxation the county is still addressing.
Some others in the crowded Democratic primary field for county executive have also criticized the tax program, notably candidate Ryan Meyer, who pledged to dismantle it if he took office.
However, the tax program is now protected both by a legislative ordinance and an executive order.
Under the charter, LeVota’s executive order — or any executive order from a sitting county executive — can be reversed by an overriding order from their successor, or by legislative vote or court order. Similarly, the legislative ordinance could be reversed in the future by a competing legislative ordinance or by court order.
Impacts on lawsuits
The county is still embroiled in a legal dispute with the Missouri State Tax Commission over the 2023 and 2024 tax cycles. The lawsuit focuses on communication and procedural issues, alleging that Jackson County did not follow the proper legal steps notifying homeowners before raising home values by upwards of 15% per parcel.
Legislators said Monday that codifying the proposed tax credit program could lead to some resolution in the ongoing case with the state, as it makes an attempt to reverse or mitigate what the state has deemed unlawful overpayments from 2023.
However, Jackson County is still facing two other lawsuits related to the tax credits. Though the ordinance passed Monday addresses homeowners who paid taxes reflecting a property value increase higher than 15%, it won’t stop an ongoing class-action lawsuit on behalf of the same group. Unless homeowners opt out individually by July 16, more than 200,000 Jackson County households will become part of the lawsuit class seeking a direct one-time refund of overpayments, which some have warned could bankrupt the county.
In addition, Jackson County taxing jurisdictions like cities, schools and libraries have warned that the new tax credits rely on “clawing back” millions of dollars already spent, which could destabilize future budgets or force the districts to slash staff and programming.
The Independence and Fort Osage School Districts sued LeVota and the county in June, echoing an open letter from 12 Jackson County school districts along the same lines. The lawsuit alleges that LeVota did not have authority to enact the tax credits on his own, an argument that may be complicated by the Legislature’s recent vote approving them.
Representatives from Kansas City and Lee’s Summit and the Kansas City and Mid-Continent public library systems spoke at a legislative hearing last week, arguing that the tax credit program and its “clawbacks” could erode or eliminate a wide variety of essential public services.
