TAX BITE INCREASES

Newly compiled assessed valuation totals for Missouri's 114 counties and the city of St. Louis have reached a record-breaking $47.5 billion. The assessed valuations amount to $8,967 for every man, woman and child in Missouri. As recently as 1990, Missouri's assessed valuation, expressed on a per capita basis, was $7,784.

The reassessment is an effort by the Missouri Tax Commission to equalize per capita and total assessments throughout the state.

Per capita valuation in Cape Girardeau County was $8,829, just slightly under the state average. New Madrid County, with the huge Noranda Aluminum and Associated Electric plants, enjoys an impressive per capita valuation of $15,416, while its poorer neighbor, Pemiscot County, rates just $5,411. The state's highest per capita figure, $20,634, is in rapidly growing Taney County, home Branson, of the nationally popular tourist destination.

To reflect on these numbers is to be reminded that inflation combined with ordinary growth means an ever-upward ratcheting in the valuations that generate tax revenue for government. Combine these forces with the periodic reassessment mandated by state law and you get impressive results for governmental entities dependent on property tax revenues.