Frank White blasts Quinton Lucas for sowing ‘confusion and mistrust’ on assessments
Jackson County Executive Frank White Jr. this week called out Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas for critical remarks Lucas made about the county’s reassessment process.
In a letter to Lucas obtained by The Star through an open records request, White scolded Lucas for making statements that, according to White, “have, I fear, sown seeds of confusion and mistrust among our residents, and have misrepresented the legal and equitable necessity of our reassessment process.”
County officials have been under a lot of public pressure lately from taxpayers fearful that big increases in the taxable values of their homes and businesses will lead to comparable increases in their taxes at the end of the year.
The county only sets the valuations on which Kansas City and other jurisdictions base their levies. But the county’s reassessment operation often gets the brunt of the blame for increases, which White says is not justified.
White’s letter to Lucas was written mostly in response to remarks Lucas made in a recent TV news interview about the reassessment process.
Lucas said in that interview with KMBC’s Micheal Mahoney that he feared some people might not be able to afford big increases in their property taxes based on the growing assessed values of their homes.
As reassessment notices began going out in May, director of assessment Gail McCann Beatty warned that the average increase would be around 30 percent.
But the valuations on some homes have more than doubled, because they had been undervalued for years.
“I hope our partners in Jackson County can find a way to perhaps stagger these types of increases to work with people who are going to have real challenges,” Lucas told Mahoney.
Later in the interview, he explained why he felt that way:
“Because I’m scared people could be losing their homes in a little while,” he said.
Lucas did not immediately respond to a request for comment for this article. One of his top aides agreed Wednesday to convey to the mayor The Star’s request for comment on the letter.
White took umbrage at Lucas’ statements because the county does not have the power under state law to set up payment plans for taxpayers. He also was annoyed by Lucas’ implication, both publicly and privately, that the county could use more discretion in setting property values for tax purposes.
By state law, assessed real estate values are supposed to reflect what a piece of property would sell for on the open market. The only discretion the county has is in adjusting values downward for individual homes when presented with evidence to support that.
“I think this will be a mess of a process,” Lucas said of the appeal procedure property owners have available to them to challenge their assessed values. “So what I would say right now is, let’s try to act up front.”
In his letter, White said such remarks are not helpful.
“Your proposal to halt the reassessments is more than just a breach of state law,” White wrote. “It risks creating false hope and eroding the trust our residents place in public institutions.”
Then White got personal, highlighting Lucas’ own situation as an example for the need to reset the market values of real estate every two years to ensure that all taxpayers are treated equitably.
The letter points out that Lucas’ own house had been undervalued on the tax rolls at least since he and his wife bought it two years ago for $478,000. Until this reassessment, it had been on the tax rolls at $301,000.
It’s now assessed at $492,970 and, White noted, is probably worth more than that, given the current demand for homes in the Coleman Highlands neighborhood where Lucas lives.
In doing so, he also injected race into the discussion, noting that people of color in low-income neighborhoods — White and Lucas are both Black — can end up paying a higher proportion of overall tax collection when property values are not periodically adjusted in middle- and upper-income neighborhoods.
“Your residence is in a predominantly white neighborhood that has been undervalued for many years,” White wrote. “The communities in these neighborhoods are among those who stand to benefit most from your proposed freeze or gradual increase in valuation.”
He went on to quote the late Harold Washington, Chicago’s first Black mayor.
“In plain simple English,’’ Washington is quoted as saying, “if your taxes are lower because mine are higher, then you (have been) unjustly enriched.”
White ended his single-spaced, one-page letter by imploring Lucas to correct his previous statements.
“Continued silence or evasion of this issue is not only misleading to our residents but position you alongside the many politicians whose false statements have significantly eroded public trust and credibility.”
Also this week, Manny Abarca, budget committee chairman of the Jackson County Legislature, introduced a proposed resolution calling for the county to cap all property reassessment increases at 15 percent.
It will be heard in committee when the legislature next meets July 10. A similar proposal was considered in 2019, but the county counselor said the county did not have that authority.
