Missouri Attorney General Catherine Hanaway
JEFFERSON CITY – Missouri Attorney General Catherine Hanaway has announced what she calls two major victories for Missouri taxpayers.
The first is securing a final resolution to Jackson County’s years-long property tax assessment controversy, and the second is successfully defending Missouri’s Homestead Property Tax Credit law against a broad constitutional challenge.
“At a time when families across Missouri are stretching every dollar and watching their household budgets more closely than ever, government has a responsibility to safeguard taxpayers, not make life harder for them,” Hanaway said. “When local governments get it wrong, Missouri families should not be the ones who pay the price.
“Whether we’re stopping unlawful property tax practices or defending tax relief for homeowners, we will keep fighting to protect taxpayers’ wallets and make sure government officials follow the law.”
The Jackson County settlement brings to a close the state’s litigation stemming from the county’s 2023 property assessment process.
Hanaway’s office says the controversy arose after county officials used flawed assessment practices, failed to follow state law and missed required notice deadlines for extreme tax increases on tens of thousands of property owners. The AG’s office calls the fallout “one of the largest local tax controversies in recent Missouri history,” and says it spurred Missouri voters to approve a constitutional amendment requiring the direct election of all county assessors.
After intervening to protect taxpayers, the state ordered Jackson County to correct residential assessments, roll back many of the largest increases and take steps to comply with Missouri law moving forward. Jackson County challenged that order in court, but the state prevailed at trial.
Under the settlement announced last week, county officials have agreed to dismiss their appeal, continue complying with the state’s corrective order, maintain the corrected assessments, and certify that the required adjustments were made to the 2023 and 2024 assessment rolls.
In a parallel class action lawsuit, Jackson County has separately agreed to reimburse taxpayers who were unlawfully over-assessed. The court has preliminarily approved the class action settlement.
In the homestead front, Hanaway’s office secured a victory in Alois Kirchhofer, et al. v. State of Missouri and Catherine L. Hanaway, which sought to eliminate protections for Missouri homeowners facing excessive and sudden property tax increases.
A judge ruled in favor of the state, rejecting every constitutional challenge brought by the plaintiffs and preserving key protections for Missouri homeowners against excessive and sudden property tax increases.
The judgment upheld the state’s arguments that the statute was rationally related to the legitimate state interest of protecting homeowners from dramatic tax increases while addressing widespread assessment compliance issues across the state. The court also noted evidence showing that more than 90 Missouri counties and the City of St. Louis were assessing property below state compliance standards.
The case was successfully briefed on behalf of the State by Assistant Attorneys General Clayton Weems and Sean McDowell.
