With trial looming, Jackson County executive urges Missouri AG to drop assessment lawsuit
Jackson County Executive Frank White urged Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey on Wednesday to drop a civil lawsuit against the county for how it handled recent property assessments.
White said the lawsuit threatened significant financial problems for public services like schools and libraries throughout the county.
“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,” White said in the letter.
“While the county remains confident in our legal argument as well as our reassessment process, the risk to our residents and our children is too great not to try everything we can to avoid the potential catastrophe that our school districts have warned the court about,” he said.
Bailey’s office filed the lawsuit in December in Jackson County Circuit Court and accused county officials of illegally handling property tax assessments. Those assessments for 2023 meant an average increase in property values of 30%, and many county property owners received increases higher than 100%, the lawsuit said.
The lawsuit alleges county officials did not properly notify property owners of increases, failed to do physical inspections and handled appeals using an “an illegally performed and dysfunctional” process.
In his letter Wednesday, White said the county had followed “lawful and equitable assessment practices” and said the lawsuit could result in large financial losses for school districts and other public services.
Recent property assessments in the county reflected a substantial rise in home values, and local taxing districts have set their tax rates accordingly, he wrote. The lawsuit, he said, threatened to cut large holes in their budgets, pointing to the Lee’s Summit School District, which would stand to lose $32 million.
White said the increases that some residents experienced in last year’s state-mandated reassessment came from a combination of economic changes that increased home values and assessments in the county over the years that had been inconsistent and unfair, “that tended to have more to do with who you know than how much your property is worth,” he said.
Taxpayers who believe their property is valued inaccurately can challenge their assessment with the county’s Board of Equalization, which is made up of citizens who weigh appeals, and with the state tax commission, White said.
The lawsuit is scheduled to go to trial on June 6.
The Star’s Kacen Bayless contributed reporting to this story.
