Frank White vetoes ordinance directing administration to comply with state order

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (KCTV) - On Friday, Jackson County Executive Frank White, Jr. vetoed a county ordinance that directed him to comply with a State Tax Commission (STC) order to roll back and cap some of the 2023 assessments. The order came following allegations that the notification and inspection procedure for more than half of residential properties did not follow state law.

White called the order “contested, unprecedented and unenforceable.” The county administration took the STC to court over the lawfulness of its order. A judge sided with the STC. The county has not yet filed an appeal.

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“A final decision has not yet been made, but we cannot and will not implement this ordinance while these fundamental questions remain unresolved,” White’s veto message read.

He provided a three-page letter asserting eight reasons for his decision, including the potentially “devastating” impact it could have on schools, services and special funds that rely on property taxes and have likely already spent what they received in the years in question.

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The veto comes a day after he issued a statement committing to capping 2025 assessment increases at 15%. Increases above that, by Missouri law, require specific notification and inspection procedures. Legal documents have indicated more than 80% of 2023 residential assessments exceeded that 15% threshold.

Capping 2025 increases at 15% is not, however, in line with the order, because it bases that increase on the 2023 figures whose validity is in dispute.

White emphasized the 2025 cap as an effort to seek “collaboration and long-term solutions” and said the ordinance “undermines that good-faith process.”

Now, legislators who passed the ordinance with a 5-4 vote are considering several next steps.

The legislators need six votes to override his veto. Consistently on this issue, it’s been the same five legislators pitted against the same four.

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That override vote needs to happen at the next legislative meeting following the veto, which is Monday.

By waiting to announce that veto at 4:30pm on Friday, that means they have only Easter weekend to lobby for that extra vote.

The two most vocal in the effort to enforce the order are Manny Abarca and Sean Smith. Legislators Vanessa Huskey, Donna Peyton and DaRon McGee sided with them on this matter and other related efforts.

The four no votes came from Jeanie Lauer, Megan Marshall, Charlie Franklin and Jalen Anderson.

Asked if two and a half days would be enough time to get one of them to switch sides, Abarca and Smith suggested it could happen if the pressure came not from them but from voters.

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“I have confidence in the taxpayers demanding of the four accountability,” Abarca said.

“What I would say is that there’s four legislators, and I think it’s been widely published who they are,” Smith said. “They need to hear from taxpayers.”

The county ordinance passed on April 7 includes no enforcement mechanism. White said it still has merit as a means of testing White’s stand and would set the stage to allow the county to play a role in any related state legislative or legal action.

“It allowed the public an opportunity to see what this man is made of,” Smith said. “and maybe, if they haven’t decided to sign the recall petition, seeing him veto an ordinance that directs him to follow the law, maybe that’s enough.”

Abarca described it as an effort at case building.

“That, as childish as it is, is the requirements of the proof that we have to show court,” Abarca said. “We have to show the malfeasance was intentional, was planned out, was strategized, and sadly, that’s where we have found ourselves.”

Abarca said he is working to get the legislative chair to allow public comment on Monday *before a vote.

Smith is considering submitting a complaint to the attorney general to have White removed.

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