CLAYTON, Mo. – A new class action lawsuit says St. Louis County seniors may not receive as much tax relief as they are expecting.
More than 82,000 people have applied for the new program this year.
The state law outlines the senior property tax freeze, and it is intended to freeze the entirety of someone’s property tax bill so that people of retirement age do not have to pay an increase in their property taxes.
But, according to St. Louis County’s own website, there are still some parts of the bill that could go up.
“They may be planning right now that at least this won’t go up and at least I won’t get priced out of my home. I know that was a lot of the concern for people,” attorney Pat Hagerty said.
Hagerty filed a new class action lawsuit, claiming that the way the county plans to implement this program is not in line with state law because some portions of tax bills could still increase.
FOX 2 asked State Senator Tony Luetkemeyer, who sponsored the bill, about the matter.
“The intent was to give across-the-board tax relief. Not to parse out different types of property taxes within a tax bill, which is what St. Louis County and some other counties are trying to do,” Luetkemeyer said.
According to the county’s website, only “general operating taxes” will be frozen. The freeze does not include “debt service taxes” and the “blind pension fund.”
“The county did not have to adopt this, but they did by ordinance and what the legislature said is that if you adopt this by ordinance or by vote of the people, you have to follow these particular guidelines,” Hagerty said.
The county had not yet seen the lawsuit when FOX 2 asked county executive Sam Page about it Wednesday morning. Page said he would review it.
“Folks can say whatever they want. I can tell you this program is designed precisely by state law,” Page said.
Hagerty worries the tax freeze would only apply to the county’s general tax, which he says makes up 2% of people’s property tax bills. The rest is from other taxing districts like schools, libraries, parks, etc.
FOX 2 spoke to County Councilwoman Rita Days about this before the lawsuit was filed.
“All of that is not part of the freeze and I’m not sure exactly which ones are, but we as St. Louis County can only freeze those taxes that we control,” she said.
FOX 2 asked the County Executive’s Office for clarification and was told Hagerty’s concerns are “off base.”
The county’s ordinance does state that it applies to all taxing districts in the county, but FOX 2 was not given any additional details when asking for confirmation. Instead, they said it will now have to answer in court.