FATE OF TAX REASSESSMENT MAY REST ON COURT CHALLENGES

The fate of a bold, new round of statewide tax reassessment may hinge on a decision to be made in a challenge brought by officials in Dunklin County in Southeast Missouri. At issue is a process of raising -- for the most part -- residential property assessments all over the state to reflect what the Missouri Tax Commission believes has happened in the marketplace over the past few years.

In short, the tax commission doesn't think county assessors have kept up with the increasing residential values, As a result, the commission has told county assessors to reassess property values in line with targets set in Jefferson City. The result is, in many counties including Cape Girardeau County, rather significant increases in assessed value for desirable residential areas.

With higher assessments comes more tax liability. Residential property is particularly hard hit in this process, because agricultural land is valued for tax purposes on its productivity. And commercial property, in general, hasn't experienced the large jumps in market value.

Because of the large increase in assessed valued in Cape Girardeau County, a tax rollback will be triggered when notices of reassessment go out sometime in April. It will be up to each taxing entity in the county -- school districts, cities and so forth -- to determine how much that rollback will be.

This tends to get confusing for many taxpayers whose knowledge of property taxes often is limited to whatever amount shows up on the tax bill. Many taxpayers aren't even aware of changes in their property taxes, if their tax bill is for residential property and the taxes are paid by the mortgage company.

Indeed, there are so many variables involved in this reassessment process that even with new assessment notices this spring, most taxpayers won't know what changes -- if any -- will occur when the tax bill arrives this fall.

All of this, of course, depends on what happens in Dunklin County, where a judge took the matter under advisement last week and is expected to rule in about a month. Although his ruling would only affect Dunklin County directly, there are four other such lawsuits, all in Southern Missouri counties, that will be closely watched by assessors and the tax commission.