After anger over property tax hikes, Jackson County will vote on this big change
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- Jackson County will vote Nov. 4 to change the assessor from appointed to elected.
- Voter push follows 2023 assessment hikes and sustained legal and political disputes.
- If approved, first elected assessor will take office after 2028 general election.
Jackson County voters will soon decide whether the county’s appointed assessor should instead be elected, a momentous decision after years of fury over increased property assessments.
The upcoming Nov. 4 vote comes after the Jackson County Legislature voted this summer to place the measure, an amendment to the county charter, on the countywide ballot.
If voters approve it, the decision would put Jackson County in line with every other major county in Missouri. Jackson County remains the only charter county in the state with an appointed assessor, who values and assesses all real and personal property in the county.
The measure comes amid an intense outcry from local homeowners after a dramatic increase in property assessments in 2023. Elected officials of both parties at the county and state levels prioritized changing the assessment process over the past year, arguing that an elected assessor would make the position more accountable to voters.
Assessments, which take place every two years, have become one of the county’s most volatile political topics. The issue has roiled Jackson County politics, seeping into debates over the recent recall election of County Executive Frank White Jr. and the fight over the Kansas City Chiefs and Royals.
Gail McCann Beatty, a former Democratic leader of the Missouri House, currently leads the Jackson County Assessment Department. White, the former top executive, appointed her to the position.
County officials, including Beatty, have previously said they’ve worked to correct errors in the assessment process amid a series of legal fights with state officials.
A spokesperson for County Executive Phil LeVota, who was recently appointed to the office, said in a statement that LeVota was not taking a position on the ballot measure.
“There are pros and cons to the issue but that’s a decision for the voters to make,” said spokesperson Angie Jeffries. “The county executive is just hopeful that everyone uses and cherishes their right to vote.”
Jackson County Legislature Chairman DaRon McGee, who helped sponsor the legislation, said he felt that it was important for voters in Jackson County to decide what role their assessor will have.
“I thought it was important to have the voters, the residents, have somebody that they can hold accountable for how their property is evaluated,” said McGee, who pointed to the lengthy list of topics, such as the stadiums fight, that have become intertwined with the fight over assessments.
“We have some other really big issues,” McGee said. “And we’re going to move forward as a county, we’ve got to address assessments.”
The question that Jackson County voters are poised to see on their ballots would ask, in part, whether the county charter should be amended “to require that the Charter Office of the Jackson County Assessor no longer be a qualified appointee and instead be an elected position?”
If voters approve the measure, the assessor would not be put to a vote for three more years. The next assessor would be elected in the 2028 general election.
The Nov. 4 ballot question is separate from another measure that takes aim at Jackson County’s assessment process. Residents across Missouri are poised to vote on a statewide constitutional amendment in 2026 that would also make the assessor elected.
That measure, which state lawmakers placed on the ballot, will likely become a fraught political issue next year if Jackson County voters reject the Nov. 4 ballot question.
Both upcoming ballot measures come more than a decade after Missouri voters overwhelmingly approved an amendment to the state constitution allowing Jackson County to remain the only charter county in the state with an appointed assessor.
The 2010 exemption specifically targeted Jackson County and was worded to apply only to charter counties with populations between 600,000 and 700,000 people, a population level Jackson County has now surpassed.
