By Kevin Lavery, KWMU
St. Louis, MO – The St. Louis School Board Tuesday night lowered the rate at which the district taxes property owners. But that does not mean tax bills automatically will go down.
Property owners will pay $4.19 for every $100 of assessed property. District treasurer Enos Moss says the district will collect about $110 million, even though that's not as much as they're actually charging property owners. "Based on historical data, we will only collect maybe 91%, roughly, of the tax bills that go out," he said.
The tax rate is headed down, but tax bills might still be higher. Moss says higher property values will actually mean more money for the district.
"Lowering [the rate] by $0.11 still gives us $2.6 million of additional revenue. Because of the increase in the assessed value of property, we're realizing more revenue."
St. Louis residents will start to see the change on their property tax bills by this fall.