Attorney’s for Missouri AG, Jackson County spar ahead of property tax assessment trial
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — T-minus three weeks until the start of a trial between Missouri’s attorney general and Jackson County. The issue: property tax assessments.
The goal for the state is proving the county broke the law in the process, in some cases rocketing home values while providing a difficult path for appeal.
During a motion hearing on Friday attorneys for the county as well as for Tyler Technologies, who was contracted for the assessment, argued that Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey should be deposed, or give testimony, because of his comments on the case using specific wording.
Bailey put out a statement two months ago saying “The court has set a trial date of June 6, 2024 for our case against Jackson County and its illegal assessment scheme for property taxes.”
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It’s the words “illegal assessment scheme” that irked defense attorneys who argued that Bailey should be deposed to share what exactly was illegal, with an attorney for Tyler Technologies saying just because people are upset, that doesn’t mean a law was broken.
The Missouri Merchandising Practice Act gives one potential explanation with the Attorney General’s Office allowed broad authority to investigate unfair business practices.
Sixth District Jackson County Legislator Sean Smith, who will testify for the attorney general – explains the issue with assessments this way.
“In this instance, the attorney general is trying to say essentially you’ve taken away or drastically limited those administrative appeals options. And I think that’s absolutely true. I’ve heard hundreds of stories of taxpayers who said they were coerced into signing what’s called a stipulation, basically a settlement,” Smith said.
“We eliminated or drastically reduced most of the safeguards that are supposed to be there to protect homeowners from runaway assessments,” Smith said.
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In a statement issued earlier this week on the situation, Jackson County Executive Frank White said. “Assessments reflect these market realities and invalidating them would provide only temporary relief while setting the stage for future market-driven increases.”
“This lawsuit creates the potential for sizeable tax increases for tens of thousands of Jackson County residents to make up for the artificial reduction in valuations sought by the lawsuit,” according to the statement.
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