Opportunity to split tax rate rollbacks often goes unused

With the exception of St. Louis County, every Missouri county has opted out of a state statute that would ease the property tax burden on residential homeowners and distribute it more evenly among agriculture and commercial property owners.

Counties assess residential property differently than commercial or agricultural property. Homes are assessed at market value. Agricultural and commercial properties are assessed by what they can produce.

Generally, agriculture and commercial real estate increase in value at much lower percentages than residential. Usually -- although it wasn't the case in Cape Girardeau County this year -- agricultural and commercial real estate sees much lower increases in value than does residential.

When tax rates are rolled back to keep the revenue neutral, the homeowner sees less of a break than the county farmer.

To address the inequity, the state legislature in 2002 made a provision that required counties to split rollbacks on each type of property. That law was reduced to just St. Louis County in 2003 and left as an option for all Missouri counties this year. County officials blasted the idea because the law would require four separate tax rates for each current taxing entity. In Cape Girardeau County, that means there would be 136 separate tax rates. Assessor Jerry Reynolds said that would be a logistical nightmare.

In this year's reassessment, agriculture land in Cape Girardeau increased by 1.1 percent. Commercial real estate was unusually high at 8.4 percent, although much of the commercial increase is likely due to new construction of several large developments in Cape Girardeau and Jackson over the last year.

Residential values increased 7.8 percent in the county.

Staff writer Marc Powers contributed to this story.