Officials with the Warren County R-III School District are raising concerns over a county government process that they fear is having a negative impact on revenue for schools and various other public services. 

For an undetermined number of years, many properties in Warren County have not been reappraised by the county assessor’s office. R-III Schools Superintendent Gregg Klinginsmith said that has led to a substantial gap in the property tax revenue the school district should be collecting.

“It’s over $1 million per year that we would have the opportunity to collect,” Klinginsmith told The Record after studying the district’s assessment data going back over 10 years.

Property appraisals are what the county government uses to determine property taxes, which are supposed to be based on fair market value of property. If appraisals haven’t been going up like they should, that means entities like schools and emergency districts might not have been receiving as much revenue as they potentially should have, Klinginsmith said.

Every two years, county assessors are meant to perform mass reassessments on real estate and personal properties to ensure they’re being taxed at a fair market value. But Klinginsmith said while districts outside Warren County saw their property appraisals steadily increasing, the total appraisals on existing properties within the R-III district (excluding new construction) actually went down slightly for eight out of the last 10 years.

The Record has also confirmed that the Wright City R-II School District saw a similar trend over that period of time.

Klinginsmith said new construction in the area has been a saving grace, ensuring revenues have still gone up every year. But revenue hasn’t kept up with the cost of inflation coupled with the growing needs of a growing district, Klinginsmith said, putting the district in a worse financial position than he believes it should be. Twice in recent years, the district has unsuccessfully sought a tax hike intended to offer staff more competitive salaries.

“We’d love to be able to pay our teachers competitive salaries. Right now some of our teachers are making $20,000 less than neighboring schools,” Klinginsmith said. “Every time existing property assessments don’t increase, that puts the district further behind.”

This same impact on revenue may have affected other public service districts such as Warren County’s fire and ambulance agencies, all of which have sought some form of tax hike in the last decade to keep up with their needs. Representatives of some of those agencies said they’re seeking more information about the issue and asking the county assessor’s office how it will be addressed.

Cause and remedy

County officials are placing responsibility for the lagging reassessments on former Warren County Assessor Wendy Nordwald, who resigned last year. Nordwald had been the assessor since 2005.

While new construction and new improvements to properties received appraisals during Nordwald’s tenure, properties that remained in a static condition held static county appraisals – meaning the county’s valuation of properties was potentially becoming further and further removed from real market value. County officials said they only learned after Nordwald left that no mass re-appraisal process had been conducted for numerous years. Now, a proper reassessment won’t be done until 2023, based on timing mandated by state law.

“It was impossible for me and the employees of the assessor’s office to perform everything required for reassessment (in 2021) when no preparations were made for the process prior to Ms. Nordwald leaving,” said current Assessor Katie Smith, who was an assessor’s office employee before being elected in 2020. “My staff and I will use the time between now and March of 2023 developing the necessary data to proceed with reassessment as required by Missouri law.”

Presiding Commissioner Joe Gildehaus said that when he was made aware of the assessment discrepancy, he contacted the Missouri State Tax Commission to ensure Warren County was still in compliance with state mandates for property valuations.

“I was informed by Mr. Jeff Schmidt of the Missouri State Tax Commission that based upon the data sent to the state tax commission by Ms. Nordwald, everything appeared to be in order and within state mandated guidelines,” Gildehaus said (a response that was independently confirmed by R-III’s Klinginsmith). Gildehaus added that he’s arranging for taxing entities to meet with the tax commission representative to ask further questions.

Even if property assessments are suddenly readjusted in 2023, it wouldn’t mean a huge spike in taxes for property owners, or a windfall for public services. Missouri law prevents taxes on existing properties (excluding new construction) from rising faster than the rate of inflation. That’s around 2-3 percent per year in a healthy economy.

In short, any correction will take years to make its way into the budget of local public service districts. In the meantime, they’ll have to make do with what they have.