ASSESSOR OFFERS ‘FACTS THAT TAXPAYERS OF PLATTE COUNTY NEED TO KNOW’
EDITOR:
There has been a lot of talk and accusations in the past week regarding property values and assessments. Facts that the taxpayers of Platte County need to know are below. Everything I am sharing is public information.
Many recent public statements by county officials concerning my office amount to nothing more than a campaign of fabrication and misrepresentation.
As required by law, I reassessed property values in 2025 and choose to leave values unchanged. Due to the disequalization of values in our county caused by the current county commission-appointed Board of Equalization (BOE) I did not want to compound the problem by raising values for people who did not appeal.
The current commission-appointed BOE is lowering values for the majority who appeal their valuations with little or no supporting documentation. What is even more egregious is there are BOE members appealing their own personal and commercial property valuations to their own board to be lowered, when actual sales data supports their properties’ values being raised or kept the same. I was surprised to hear Mr. Fricker defend this action.
As the BOE lowers commercial property, the tax burden will go back to the residential homeowners that did not appeal. Platte County homeowners should expect to pay more with these kinds of BOE decisions.
It is unfortunate that we have county commissioners like Scott Fricker that appoint a BOE that destroys the county’s tax base.
The fact that the State Tax Commission ordered the BOE to raise values should not be a surprise to anyone on the board or to Mr. Fricker. I explained the possibility to the BOE chair in May of 2023 when I shared my concerns about the board lowering values and throwing the county out of compliance. I reminded her that I am mandated by state law to keep values at a minimum of 90% of market value. If the ratio falls below 90% then the State Tax Commission could come in and order the BOE to raise values in the entire county.
Mr. Fricker and the other two Platte County Commissioners voted to appoint and approve these BOE members. Mr. Fricker says they appointed a “taxpayer-friendly BOE.” I have been told that some BOE members actually encourage people to appeal so that they can lower their values.
What is a “taxpayer-friendly” BOE? One that reduces a property value with little to no justification?
Two BOE members have appealed their own properties to their own board and had them reduced. The 2023 decisions on their properties are as follows:
*One current BOE member got three of his commercial properties lowered: one down 71% (reduced by $549,620), another down 69% (reduced by $1,178,770), the third down 62% (reduced $697,060).
*That same board member got his residential lot reduced by 44% (down $39,545).
*Another one of the board members appealed his personal residential property, making it the lowest home value in his subdivision.
*An elected member of our state government, representing Platte County, came with no documentation; just that he wanted his value to be lowered. In 2023, the BOE lowered his property value to an amount lower than his 2021 value.
This BOE also choose to lower properties whose values have been previously set higher by the State Tax Commission (STC). This includes the following:
*In a February 2023 decision, the STC valued a property at $1,263,600; BOE lowered it 31% (reduced to $870,000)
*In a March 2023 decision, the STC valued a property at $6,974,962; BOE lowered it 42% (reduced to $3,996,825)
*There are several others, in addition to these, where values have been dropped by millions of dollars below what the State Tax Commission has previously determined a property to be worth.
There has also been an allegation that I attempted to tax the City of Kansas City in 2023’s reassessment of property on the KCI Airport; this is simply fallacious.
The only properties within the KCI Airport that were assessed in 2023 were interests held by private companies, most of whom received a total tax abatement by our BOE when they appealed. Some of these companies had been regularly paying taxes on their commercial properties for years, until the 2023 BOE abated them to $0 valuations.
*Presiding Commissioner Scott Fricker, who has been speaking for his BOE members, says that all buildings on the KCI Airport’s land are exempt. I strongly disagree that all these properties are exempt and in fact have won an appellate court case against the Marriott Hotel located on the KCI Airport’s land regarding its proper valuation.
Additionally, just last month, two large leasehold warehouses within the KCI Airport sold for $55,600,000. I do not believe these properties are exempt, as he suggests, as they are not city operated or owned.
In regard to the KCI Airport, I am currently appealing to the Missouri Supreme Court to overturn a state law that mandates valuations are reduced based on the amount of new construction expended on the leaseholds. As written, this mandate applies only to leaseholds located within the KCI Airport’s boundary. I believe this is unconstitutional, as it is discriminatory against other commercial and residential property owners not on airport land.
In regard to the total reduction implemented by our BOE to date, consider the following data:
2023 reductions by our BOE can be summarized as follows:
*2023 Appealed Property Values: $611,052,083
*2023 Post-BOE Decision Values: $172,943,367
*2023 Total BOE Reduction of Values: $438,108,367
2024 was a non-reassessment year but the BOE’s trend of lowering values continues:
*2024 Appealed Property Values: $223,370,550
*2024 Post-BOE Decision Values: $104,518,947
*2024 Total BOE Reduction in Values: $118,851,603
A particularly notable 2024 reduction includes:
*Spire, the gas company serving Platte County, had their value lowered $9,086,779 by this BOE. For 2025, many hotels and apartment complexes appealed their values.
We are still in the process of compiling data, but are aware that the BOE has so far reduced the following properties:
*Target at Tiffany Springs lowered by $1,641,000
*The Shops at Boardwalk lowered by $1,491,208
*Hilton at Airport lowered by $10,710,000
*Zona Rosa lowered by $9,093,319
*Airport Park and Go lowered by $5,404,011
Under the law, the BOE’s mandate is to ensure values are equalized or made uniform across the county. This BOE did not perform that function. In my judgment, the BOE’s reductions over the past three years created an inequity in the county’s overall assessment, in effect creating a disequalization of values.
--David Cox Platte County Assessor
