INCREASE UP FOR APPEAL: CAPE TAXPAYER, COUNTY AT ODDS OVER PROPERTY REASSESSMENT

Joe Burton is suffering from sticker shock, having seen the assessed valuation of his Cape Girardeau home soar by 17.3 percent.

But Cape Girardeau County Assessor Jerry Reynolds said he hiked the assessment to reflect the market value of the property as required under state-mandated reassessment.

Burton, 61, lives in a brick home at 1582 Parksite in a well-kept neighborhood on the city's north side where most lawns look like carpets.

An engineer by trade, Burton says he can do the math. The Cape Girardeau County assessor's office raised the assessed valuation of his property by $3,130 this year, a move that Burton says will increase his property taxes by $146 even if voters in August don't approve the levy hike on the ballot.

"It is an exorbitant increase," he said as he sat in the living room of his home crunching the numbers.

Burton figures he'll be paying over $1,000 in taxes this year. He says it doesn't add up why his assessment should jump by so much when neighbors are experiencing increases of less than 6 percent.

"If people don't start paying attention to these taxes, we are going to be in dire straits pretty soon," he said.

Taxes are determined by levies for everything from fire districts to school districts. Most of the property taxes go to the school districts. The tax rate in Cape Girardeau County ranges from $3.76 per $100 assessed valuation in a northern section of the county to $4.93 per $100 assessed valuation in Whitewater.

Average of 6.6 percent

Cape Girardeau School District officials say local property owners will see an average 6.6 percent increase from reassessment or less than half the percentage increase that Burton is facing.

Burton said he hasn't added on a room or made other improvements to the home in the past year. His driveway faces onto busy Lexington Avenue, which he says reduces the value of his home.

He believes he's getting a raw deal. He's appealed to the county's Board of Equalization in an effort to get the assessment reduced.

The board has yet to decide the case, but Reynolds says the board seldom reduces assessments. Reynolds serves on the board, along with the three county commissioners and the county auditor.

Reynolds said he hasn't seen any public furor over reassessment. Burton was the only property owner to argue his case before the Board of Equalization in June.

Reynolds doubts the board will hear more than four or five appeals by the time the appeals process ends on July 26.

Burton said the board sees few property owners because most are nervous about appealing to county officials. "It is quite intimidating," said Burton.

But Reynolds said property owners know what their land is worth. "We are not jacking up prices more than what they are worth," he said.

He said state-mandated reassessment corrects inequities that plagued the assessment process in Missouri counties prior to 1985. Under the old system, properties typically weren't reassessed unless they were sold. Two pieces of property with identical market values could have significantly different tax values.

Thought it was worth more

As for Burton's place, Reynolds said his office undervalued it in the past and has now concluded the property is worth over $113,000 rather than the $96,699 figure listed previously.

Burton's property is assessed at $21,500 compared to $18,370 a year ago.

Residential property is assessed at 19 percent of market value, commercial property at 32 percent and farmland at 12 percent based on a land productivity scale set up by the State Tax Commission.

The assessor said every piece of property in the county -- 32,000 parcels of agricultural, commercial and residential land -- is reassessed every odd-numbered year. Reynolds said his office doesn't look at averages.

Every piece of property is judged on its own, he said. "We just look at the market value. Averages don't mean a thing to us."

Reynolds' office in May mailed out 9,000 notices to taxpayers whose properties have increased in value because of reassessment or new construction.

In Cape Girardeau County, real estate values as calculated by Reynolds and his staff total more than $543 million, up 10.8 percent over a year ago. That doesn't include state-assessed railroad and utility values, he said.

The percentage increase includes new construction as well as reassessment of existing land and building.

But without new construction, the percentage drops to the 6.6 percent average in the Cape Girardeau School District and 6.8 percent in the Jackson School District, according to school officials.

While assessed valuations jumped nearly 11 percent countywide, Reynolds said some individual taxpayers saw reassessments much higher or lower.

Reynolds acknowledges that Burton's 17 percent hike is on the high end, but he says he doesn't know how many people are in Burton's situation.

Such statistics, he said, aren't important. What is important is assessing each parcel fairly, Reynolds said.