Missouri Senate Republicans are hoping to focus on real estate property tax relief this legislative session.
“Our goal is to advance responsible, workable solutions that provide meaningful property tax relief to homeowners while balancing the needs to maintain local government services,” said Senate Majority Floor Leader Tony Luetkemeyer, R-Parkville, at a press conference on Thursday.
Gov. Mike Kehoe is expected to unveil a plan to eliminate the state income tax in his State of the State address on Tuesday, which Luetkemeyer said is still important for Senate Republicans.
But at their state caucus retreat in November, the top-polling issue was property tax relief, Luetkemeyer said.
“No one should be taxed out of their home by government,” Luetkemeyer said. “This concern has united our caucus and has also drawn bipartisan support based on some of the bills that have been prefiled this session.”
Luetkemeyer said rising assessments and higher property taxes are becoming unsustainable for Missourians, especially seniors and working families.
In 2023, the legislature passed a law giving counties the choice to freeze property taxes for seniors if they wished, which Luetkemeyer pointed out passed with bipartisan support.
So far, that policy has been adopted by some counties in the state, including the City of St. Louis and St. Louis and St. Charles counties.
“But for working families, I think what we would like to see is more predictability in the amount that property taxes can increase,” Luetkemeyer said.
Senate Minority Leader Doug Beck, D-Affton, said people vote for property tax increases to support programs like education and the fire department.
“If you ask people, do they want an ambulance to come at their house in seven minutes instead of two minutes? You know? I mean, those are all things you need to ask,” Beck said. “Do we need to be making that decision here at the state level? I'm sure we're going to have that debate.”
Last year, Speaker of the House Jon Patterson, R-Lee’s Summit, created an interim committee to examine property taxes.
At a press conference on Wednesday, the opening of this year’s legislative session, Rep. Kathy Steinhoff, D-Columbia, said she and other Democrats on the committee are planning to submit proposals related to property taxes in the coming weeks.
“There are parts of that we still want to discuss, but I know that that is something that will likely be moving forward, because there's a lot of people that have an interest in that,” Steinhoff said.
