Protesters say Jackson County reassessment hurt minority, poor neighborhoods
The Jackson County Board of Equalization will decide Tuesday whether to extend the deadline for property owners to appeal increases in their 2019 assessments.
Chanting “extend the deadline,” about 40 protesters carrying signs gathered Monday at the downtown Kansas City courthouse in support of allowing taxpayers until Sept. 1 to file formal challenges with the board. The deadline had been Monday.
“We are a people seeking justice,” the Rev. Vernon Howard said, claiming that people in poorer neighborhoods were disproportionately affected by skyrocketing increases in the values of their homes.
Howard, president of the local chapter of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, said those people were more likely to lose their homes if the increased assessments resulted in dramatically higher tax bills at the end of the year.
Those same people, he said, are more likely to need help providing the documentation necessary to prove that the county assessment department erred in setting a value on their home for tax purposes. Many don’t have internet access, lack transportation or work multiple jobs, he said, and need more time to get their appeals filed.
The board has twice extended the deadline. Unless the board does so again, the only appeals that will be accepted after Monday’s deadline are from property owners awaiting a decision on the informal appeals still pending at the assessment department.
Real estate is supposed to be reassessed every other year in Missouri, but some neighborhoods have been overlooked for years. County Executive Frank White’s administration decided to play catch-up in 2019 and set values on the tax rolls as close as possible to true market values.
As a result, some property owners saw their values quadruple when the county notified them in June. Gentrification and a hot housing market has pushed up values in neighborhoods close to downtown.
But some critics say the assessment process was flawed and fault White for not doing enough to ease their burden.
“Hey, ho, Frank White has gotta go,” chanted a crowd largely made up of residents from Kansas City’s largely Hispanic West Side neighborhood.
West Side residents have been more vocal than most. But Monday’s demonstration saw them joining forces publicly for the first time with the African American community to voice their shared concerns that minorities and “poor whites” are being adversely affected by the assessment process.
Howard urged White to end what he called the “systemic racism” and find a way to ensure that people won’t be forced to give up their homes because they are unable to pay their tax bills.
This story was originally published July 29, 2019 at 12:08 PM.
