The Jefferson County Council voted 3-3 Dec. 21 on legislation that would have provided real estate tax relief for senior homeowners beginning in 2025.
Since it was a tie vote, the legislation neither passed nor failed, and it will be brought up at a later County Council meeting, officials said.
If the bill had been approved, it would have allowed some county residents to benefit from Senate Bill 190, which the Missouri Legislature approved and Gov. Mike Parson signed into law earlier this year. That bill allows counties to create a program that would “freeze” real estate taxes on the primary home for anyone old enough to be eligible for Social Security benefits, currently 62.
Council members Gene Barbagallo (District 2, Imperial), Charles Groeteke (District 4, Barnhart) and Bob Tullock (District 7, House Springs) voted for the legislation, which specified that the tax relief wouldn’t take effect for Jefferson County residents until the 2025 tax year.
Council members Brian Haskins (District 1, High Ridge), Scott Seek (District 5, Festus) and Dan Stallman (District 6, De Soto) voted against it.
County officials had delayed taking action on the legislation for most of the year because County Counselor Jalesia F.M. Kuenzel has said the state law is inconsistent and has confusing language.
However, after months of talks about the program and requests from residents to enact it, the council appeared ready to, voting unanimously Dec. 11 to give preliminary approval to legislation that would have allowed the tax credits beginning in 2025, with hopes that further state legislation or court decisions would clear up many of the questions.
By the time the Dec. 21 meeting rolled around, though, three council members apparently had changed their minds.
Haskins said while he supported the concept of tax relief for seniors, the issue is still too problematic.
“It’s very simple,” he said. “We don’t have enough information to vote on this year. We have no idea at what level of a value of home this deals with. We have no idea how this is going to affect the 40-plus taxing entities (municipalities, school districts, fire and ambulance districts). We don’t know the long-term effect of this, especially if inflation goes up.
“It’s way too early to do this. We should work to get it right. If we pass this now and things change, then we have to go back and change our ordinance, which is not an easy thing to get accomplished.”
Seek agreed.
“We need more direction than what we’ve been given on this,” he said. “I’ve talked to school board members, people from ambulance districts – all people represented by (SB 190) and who have zero say on it. How are they going to be affected? We don’t know. I don’t think it’s a good idea to make a decision on this without information. I’m all for helping seniors. If this was just a tax freeze, that would be simple. But that’s not how this was written. The state did a really bad job coming up with this. They left it up to us to work it out.”
Groeteke said he was frustrated that months of back-and-forth between council leadership and county officials may be for naught.
“We’ve had a year’s worth of negotiating with staff and elected officials involved in this, and we wanted to pass something for the seniors of Jefferson County, to let them know we supported the concept. We left open the idea that there was a lot that still needs to be resolved, and that’s why we put in the delayed enactment (until 2025). But apparently some of our council members don’t think it’s important enough to enact tax relief for seniors.”
If, in the end, the County Council fails to take action, Groeteke predicted that residents would collect signatures on a petition to put the issue on a ballot.