STATE WANTS HOME VALUES RAISED 15 PERCENT
We will not comply.
That is Platte County’s response to last week’s order from the Missouri State Tax Commission that the county raise residential property assessments by 15 percent across the board.
Platte County officials that include the county commission, county clerk and board of equalization amplified their opposition to the state’s order in a variety of ways in recent days, issuing a press release July 30 and following it up with a press conference on Friday, Aug. 1.
County officials say they are requesting some sort of legislative action by the state to overturn the tax commission’s order. Fricker said he had a conversation with Gov. Mike Kehoe on the topic when Kehoe made a stop in Platte County on July 31.
Without legislative action, the county is bracing for the courtroom.
“We have retained legal counsel and we expect to fight this,” said Platte County Presiding Commissioner Scott Fricker on Friday.
The tax commission’s order to the county says the county’s 2023 residential assessments were 81% of market values. The state explains that residential values must be in an acceptable compliance rate of 90 to 110 percent of the property’s price on the open market.
Fricker said he blames the problem on the county assessor for not reassessing tax values for 2025, and also blames the five school districts in the county who pressured the State Tax Commission for higher assessed valuation numbers. As reported in last week’s Landmark, the schools, complained to the state that with no value changes the districts will see “an unexpected loss of revenue.”
The state had informed Platte County Assessor David Cox in late May that the county is out of compliance with the state’s ratio standards. Indications are the assessor office ignored the state’s communication in regard to potentially entering into a memorandum of understanding for the 2025 Platte County assessment roll.
In its order imposing the 15 percent across the board residential value increase, the State Tax Commission says if a memorandum of understanding had been put into effect, the understanding would have provided for an 8-10 percent increase in residential land values and improvements.
Fricker was critical of Cox for not reassessing and for not working with the State Tax Commission on a memorandum of understanding.
“He chose not to do his job,” Fricker said of Cox. “He quit.”
Fricker was also critical of the schools, in particular Park Hill. He said Park Hill’s enrollment is declining “while their tax revenues grow.”
“We call on Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe to overturn this order immediately and convene a special session of the state legislature to reform state tax law, removing the power of an unelected board to impose arbitrary and onerous tax increases on hard-working Missourians. Such reforms are essential to protect our residents and restore accountability to the taxation process,” said a press release issued by the Platte County Commission, county clerk and board of equalization last week.
“We encourage the public and all elected officials to stand with us and fight this unjust action by the Missouri State Tax Commission,” the press release added.
On Friday, State Sen. Tony Luetkemeyer posted on his Facebook page: “I’m grateful to the Platte Commission and Board of Equalization for standing in the gap against this overreach by the State Tax Commission. I’ve spoken to the governor and the attorney general, and we are exploring all options to remedy this issue.”
ASSESSOR BLAMES
BOARD OF EQUALIZATION
The Platte County Board of Equalization is a three-member board appointed by the county commissioners to ‘equalize’ values in order to ensure the tax burden is evenly distributed among all taxpayers, including residential and commercial taxpayers.
“Several extreme actions were taken by our board of equalization in tax year 2023, including reducing numerous commercial values to zero, essentially exempting them from taxation,” says Platte County Assessor David Cox.
Cox said of the residential properties appealed to the board of equalization in 2023, the board reduced values on average by 16%.
Cox said of the commercial properties appealed to the board in 2023, the board reduced values on average by 67%.
“Values reduced by the board in 2023 included properties appealed by two of the three board members themselves, including residential and commercial-classed properties,” Cox wrote in his email to The Landmark.
“In my judgment, the board’s reductions created an inequity in our county’s overall assessment. Because of these decisions, they, in effect, created a disequalization of values within the county. This disequalization in our county’s assessment influenced me to do the only thing I thought was fair: not further compound the problem by increasing everyone else’s values that were not reduced by our board,” says the assessor.
Fricker says decisions by the board of equalization would have had very little impact on overall valuation in the county. Fricker said the county has about 45,000 residential properties and the board of equalization only hears about 100 appeals per year.
Cox, on the other hand, said the board of equalization reduced values by $438 million.
“And I would like to see their methodology for doing that,” he added.
Asked by The Landmark in a phone conversation last week if he was aware of the criticism Fricker was pointing his direction on Facebook and through other methods, Cox said he was aware of some of Fricker’s critical comments about him but that he had no desire to respond directly to them.
“I don’t have time for that,” Cox said. “He eventually makes a fool of himself .” (On Monday morning Cox provided this letter to the editor in which he responds to ‘misinformation’ from other county officials: https://plattecountylandmark.com/2025/08/04/county-assessor-responds-to-fabrication-and-misrepresentation-by-other-officials/)
SENIOR TAX FREEZE
There are many unanswered questions in regard to the state’s order.
Fricker explained on Friday that is not known what, if any, the state’s order to raise all residential property assessments would have on seniors who have already qualified for what is known as the “senior tax freeze.”
“We don’t know,” he said in response to a question at the press conference.
County officials say it is not known if last year’s valuations would be frozen under the state’s order or if the state’s order would include a 15 percent increase on values that seniors thought were already capped.
