Jackson County legislators call out county administration over property taxes

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (KCTV) - Owning a home in Jackson County now comes with a hefty price after many were hit hard by property taxes.

County legislators are trying to distance themselves from the controversial assessment office.

Last month, the Missouri State Tax Commission capped the county’s property values at 15% for the 2023 and 2024 assessments. Still, the county assessment office stands behind its work.

Jackson County Legislators Manny Abarca and Sean Smith said they have been fighting on behalf of the taxpayers who have been wronged. On Monday, they continued to sound off about the issue.

“As everybody knows the 2023 reassessment was really challenging, resulted in severe damage for a lot of homeowners, some of them still seeking justice,” said Smith, “while the county, specifically the county administration continues to do everything they can to resist changes.”

ALSO READ: Drones, partnerships and mandatory overtime: How some Kansas City leaders want to change policing

As the levy rate process kicks off, Abarca said it’s one more chance where the legislature must use its authority to do what it can to mitigate the harm they did to taxpayers in 2023.

“The levy setting process seems like a mundane way for us to impact this, however, it’s one of the most direct ways that we have the ability to impact actual taxation rate,” said Abarca.

Despite their efforts to fix the flaws from the 2023 tax assessments they said they continue to get pushback from the other side of the hall.

“The county executive is not going to be here today; he’s not been here the last 6-8 weeks and unfortunately just getting him to show up is a challenge so nevertheless to try to work through this, it’s not possible if someone doesn’t want to work with us,” said Abarca.

Smith said that they have proof that shows every time they submit legislative action, if it’s intended to help the taxpayer, what they see is the administration and the county counselor blocking that.

ALSO READ: Funeral plans announced for fallen Kansas City firefighter Kyle Brinker

“I have examples right here,” said Smith as he held up a packet, “printed screens where we’re saying to them when are you going to put these items on our legislative agenda.”

Both legislators are pointing the finger at County Executive Frank White and said if he doesn’t do his job, they want White out.

“We really need to consider the possibility that we need a charter change that would direct maybe the legislature to have the authority to terminate the executive when we see this kind of mal-feasance going on a regular basis,” said Smith.

Smith and Abarca said they are going to continue to work on reducing the levy this week. They need to have a levy rate set by October 1st.

KCTV5 has reached out to Frank White’s office for comment and has not heard back.

ALSO READ: Lower interest rates from Federal Reserve leads to debt payoffs

Copyright 2024 KCTV. All rights reserved.