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In This
Issue
Contact
Me
Representative
Cynthia
Davis
19th
District
Majority
Floor Whip
Missouri State Capitol
Room 112
201 W. Capitol Ave.
Jefferson City,
MO 65101
Phone:
573-751-9768
Website
http://www.cynthiadavis.net/
E-Mail
cynthia.davis@house.mo.gov
Committees
Interim Committee on
Poverty
Chair
Health Care
Policy
Vice Chair
Family
Services
Vice Chair
Elections
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The
Right
Way to Do Real Estate
Taxes
Last week I presented a resolution before the
House
Ways and Means Committee that will correct many
injustices for Missouri taxpayers. While you may
hear of different ways to enact real estate tax reform, if it is not done
correctly we will not see any real change. Some Missouri residents
have seen property tax increases of 30, 40 or even 50 per cent
every two years. While most people can understand
inflationary increases, these huge increases are well beyond
reasonable. This amounts to a tax increase without a vote of the
people.
We tend to blame the tax assessor or the tax
collector, but the blame belongs to the system. My bill, HJR 42,
corrects this problem by doing the following:
1. It limits the increase of real
estate assessment to nothing beyond the rate of
inflation.
2. It limits the increase of the
taxing jurisdiction’s spending to no more than the rate of inflation plus
local growth.
3. It rolls back the assessed
valuation to the 2005 assessed value, which takes the correction back to a
date when taxes were more proportionate.
4.
It still allows a property tax increase beyond the rate of inflation
with a vote of the
people. (If it is a good idea, worthy of the
generosity of the taxpayers, they will frequently vote in favor of the
increase.)
Here is where it gets interesting.
Currently, the local taxing jurisdictions are required to roll back the
levy (the dollar amount assigned to a unit of property value) so that they
do not collect increases more than the rate of inflation plus local
growth. However, arguably, this may not exactly be happening. During
the hearing, the committee Chairman asked a lobbyist for the public
schools why schools don't really roll back their levies to the correct
amount. The lobbyist replied that schools cannot operate with only
inflationary increases in revenue. Why not? The rest of the
world is living with inflationary increases. And why are schools not
budgeting according to the intent of current law? This is a reason
why the taxpayers need and are asking for
reform.
If we limit real estate tax increases to inflation
and limit spending to inflation as well, the two budget lines will show a
parallel growth that will be both predictable and fair. If the
spending limitation is not included, the local taxing jurisdictions will
spend more than they are taking in, and they will soon experience
self-inflicted hardships. We are asking them to only do what
responsible families and businesses do when planning their budgets.
Finally, my bill will place this change before the
voters in November so that the people can decide. This bill will
only put into the constitution what the standard practice should have been
all along. It is unfortunate that we need to craft additional
language to make sure our residents are not getting gouged, but that is
the reality of today.
If the resolution passes the vote of the people,
we will also no longer need a complicated tax relief program to help
senior citizens. This program was a reaction to severe increases that hurt
everybody. But unfortunately, the program only benefits the small
minority of people who are able to fill out the paper work. People
in all age brackets have difficulty paying their bills. If we have
tax fairness, we could help everybody who has been negatively impacted by
the extra-inflationary increases. Government should create a just
system that is fair to all.
Remember, if you really feel like you should be
paying more, you can always offer a charitable contribution to the taxing
entity of your choice. However, citizens should not feel like they
are renting their property from the
government.
Your
thoughts are important to me, so please let me know what you think about
this proposal. You can send me your opinion by clicking
here:
Cynthia Davis.
Free Day
for Bulk Waste Drop-off
On
Saturday, February 16, O’Fallon residents may dispose of items too large
to fit into trash containers, for free, by bringing them to the City’s
waste transfer station between 7:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m. Information
about using this service and acceptable and non-acceptable items can be
found at O’Fallon
Environmental Services or by calling (636)
272-0477.
Directions
to O’Fallon’s Waste Transfer Station
The waste transfer station is
located at 1572 Progress West
Lane in O’Fallon. To get there, take the
North Service Road to Hoff
Road (9/10 of a mile west of the Bryan Road
junction). Turn north on Hoff
Road, cross the railroad tracks and bear left
(west). Continue on Hoff
Road for about three blocks, and turn left on
Progress West, which dead ends at the transfer
station.
February 18, But I’ll Still Be Here
All
non-essential Missouri state offices will be closed on
Monday, February 18, 2008, for All President’s Day. Your State
Capitol, however, will be open and doing business if you need to contact
me.
Also,
the state now has a toll-free hotline, (888) 390-9927, which provides an
updated announcement of state office building closures in the event of an
emergency or safety threat. The number is informational only and
will not accept messages from callers for
follow-up.
Quote of the
Week…
The
government is like a baby's
alimentary
canal,
with a happy
appetite at one end and no responsibility at the other.
-Ronald
Reagan
Happy
Valentine’s Day
From Your
State Representative,
Cynthia
Davis!
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