ROLLING BACK: REASSESSMENT, PROP C FIGURE IN FINAL TAX BILLS

Higher assessments won't necessarily mean residents in Cape Girardeau and other counties will be paying higher taxes.

The major reassessment in real estate values Cape Girardeau and other counties will undergo this year will have varying effects on residents.

While Cape Girardeau County Assessor Jerry Reynolds predicts values will increase an average of 25 percent, that will not translate to average property tax increases of 25 percent.

Reassessments are intended to insure that assessed values adequately reflect market values. In recent years, the assessments have not kept pace with market values due to a booming real estate market.

Taxing entities are not allowed to profit from increases in assessed values. When reassessment occurs, the entities are required to roll back tax levies to reflect the changes.

Rollbacks are figured by the taxing entity calculating the total amount of revenue it received before the rollback. The taxing entity then adjusts its rate downward to generate the same amount of revenue, plus an increase for inflation.

While municipalities and fire and road districts levy taxes on property, school districts receive the bulk of the revenue.

Cape Girardeau school superintendent Dr. Dan Tallent has a preliminary estimate on how the district's tax levy will be affected by the reassessment rollback and ballot measures the district is asking voters to approve in April.

The district wants a 30-cent levy increase for debt service and a 39-cent waiver of its Proposition C rollback to fund a $14 million bond issue for building renovations and new school construction.

The district's current operating levy is $2.88. It has no debt service levy.

If both measures are approved, the levy will be $2.92 after the reassessment rollback. If the measures are voted down, the district's levy will be $2.75 after reassessment.

Tallent hopes to have figures ready this week based on information provided by the county assessor to show district patrons what the range of increase will be in their neighborhoods.

"That is as good as we can do without knowing the exact piece of property," Tallent said.

Because of the state's foundation formula, which distributes state funds for education, reassessment rollbacks for schools can get a little muddled.

"There are some caveats there," said Missouri Tax Commissioner Bruce E. Davis. "When you get into school districts, their levies are a little more complicated."

While reassessment rollbacks are required, they might not result in a lower tax levy.

"Whether or not districts have to roll back their levies depends on what has been voted in the individual districts," Davis said, meaning that Proposition C waivers come into play.

In 1983, Missouri voters approved Proposition C, a 1-cent sales tax for education. School districts were required to use 50 percent of the revenue collected from the tax to reduce local property values.

However, in 1993 the General Assembly passed Senate Bill 380, which included a major overhaul of school funding. SB 380, in most cases, required districts to maintain a minimum levy of $2.75. Districts so authorizized can ask voters for a waiver of the Proposition C rollback to remain at the minimum. If voters refused to grant the waiver, the board of education could vote to set the levy at $2.75.

Districts that drop below the minimum forfeit all funding under the foundation formula and lose accreditation. School that remain unaccredited for two years or longer could be subject to state takeover or merger with a neighboring district.

Jerry Ogle, director of school finance for the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, said if a district's levy drops below the minimum solely because of reassessment, the district is not sanctioned.

However, she said, districts with lower levies would likely see a decline in state foundation formula money.

"Anytime the tax rate goes down for whatever reason, districts lose money," Ogle said. "Legislation at that time intended for the formula to be sensitive to the tax rate and to encourage taxpayers to pay more at the local level."

Because of Proposition C and the Hancock Amendment, which set caps for increases, the levies for many school district have fallen from the maximum allowed, known as the levy ceiling.

For example, a district's levy ceiling may be $3, but it might only be levying $2.75. If reassessment required a 15-cent rollback, the ceiling would drop to $2.85, but the actual levy -- what taxpayers pay per $100 assessment -- would remain the same.