The first year of the St. Louis County senior property tax freeze program, which allows the taxable value of a senior’s home to be locked in place at its 2024 amount, saved older residents $30 million.
Data collected by the county and analyzed by St. Louis Public Radio reveals that on average, higher-income seniors had more applications approved than lower-income residents.
An analysis of a combination of census data and the county's data on the tax freeze found that St. Louis County seniors in municipalities with the top 50% in property value had around 10% more applications approved than those in the bottom 50% of property value.
Many of these lower property value municipalities are in north St. Louis County, where some areas struggle with poverty and internet access. There is also a lower rate of homeownership in some of these areas, which could mean that fewer seniors were eligible to apply for the tax freeze in the first place.
District 5 Councilwoman Lisa Clancy, D-Maplewood, said she thinks the disparity is due to a lack of access.
“It was probably easier for people in the affluent areas of St. Louis County to be able to have their own transportation to get to an office for an appointment to file their senior tax freeze, or have internet access,” Clancy said.
John Herget helped his 76-year-old mother, Kathy Herget, apply online for the freeze for the Spanish Lake home that she has lived in for more than 40 years.
“I can't see how anybody that doesn't have a younger person helping them could possibly scan and upload all of the documents and use the portal,” he said.
He said that while he doesn’t have a problem with seniors of all financial statuses having their taxes frozen, he does think seniors with higher property values have more access to technology.
“I do feel like the, let's call it, higher-rent areas are going to disproportionately take advantage of this because of their technical knowledge and their access to technology,” Herget said. “If you're a senior and you live on your own and you don't have a computer … then obviously that is going to unfairly and disproportionately affect certain groups of people.”
District 3 Councilman Dennis Hancock, R-Fenton, who represents municipalities such as Town and Country with higher property values and incomes, said he thinks the higher rate of senior tax freeze application approvals in his district is likely due to the high homeownership rate there.
“There’s a lot of homeownership in my district,” Hancock said. “Also, I know, for example, where I live, there’s a high percentage of seniors.”
Kathy Herget’s tax freeze application was approved, but she said it was not an easy process. The online portal was hard to use, and she said she received no communication from the county on the status of her application until she found out it was approved months later.
The county held information sessions on the tax freeze at government centers. Herget said she attended one in north county, but she didn’t receive any information that she didn't already have access to.
Clancy said the council received similar feedback but positive responses as well.
“It was a pretty bumpy rollout. I think some of that can be expected in the first year of a program of this magnitude,” Clancy said. “Despite some of the complaints and things that we saw, we did see pretty good feedback from customer service surveys.”
She said the renewal process should be simpler than the initial application process. The portal to renew or submit a new tax freeze application is open now.
John Herget thinks it’s unfair that seniors have to reapply every year. Other area counties have a similar procedure.
“The only reasonable explanation for them making that part of the process is so they can screw seniors out of their frozen pay,” Herget said.
Another aspect of the freeze is the loss of revenue it is projected to cause in other areas. The county shared in a release that school districts will see the largest revenue loss in 2026, led by Rockwood with $4 million and Parkway with $2.7 million.
“This is another tax break for affluent members in our community at the expense of public school children,” Clancy said.
Kathy Herget disagrees.
“We're not stopping paying property taxes,” Herget said. “We're just not paying this enormous increase year after year after year.”
The county, which is currently facing a large budget deficit, will lose $891,571 in revenue in 2026 from the freeze. Hancock and Clancy both said an amount this small in relation to the entire budget won’t have a huge impact.
