Section 2.2 Property Taxes

• Library: School Law (2003 Ed. + 2016 Supp)

A. (§2.2) Property Taxes

The Missouri Constitution allows “school districts formed of cities and towns, including the school district of the City of St. Louis” to levy $2.75 on each $100 assessed valuation without voter approval. MO. CONST. art. X, § 11(b). This limit may be increased to $6 by a simple majority vote of district residents. MO. CONST. art. X, § 11(c). Any further increase in the rate of taxation must be approved by a two-thirds majority of the qualified electors voting. Id. This two-thirds requirement has been criticized as unfair by supporters of school tax increases. But it does not violate the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. Brenner v. Sch. Dist. of Kansas City, Mo., 315 F. Supp. 627 (W.D. Mo. 1970), aff’d, 403 U.S. 913 (1971). The Missouri Constitution does not place time limits on the duration of a voter-approved increase in the levy; yet any durational restrictions set at the time of an election for a levy increase are binding. Hence, in Ederer v. Dalton, 618 S.W.2d 644 (Mo. banc 1981), the Supreme Court of Missouri held that a tax rate approved by voters for a limited period of time could not be indefinitely continued beyond the approved duration.

Missouri law provides two methods for submitting property tax increase proposals to a vote of district residents. First, a school board may decide that a tax levy increase election should be held and then authorize such an election by resolution. Section 164.021, RSMo 2000. Second, voters of a district, equal in number to ten percent of the number of votes cast for the member of the school board receiving the greatest number of votes cast at the last school election, may petition the board in writing. Id. In such a case, the board of education must determine the rate of increase to be submitted to voters and call the election. Id.

Tax increase elections may be held only on specific days permitted for public elections. Section 115.123, RSMo Supp. 2002. Approximately ten weeks’ advance notice of election to the county clerk is required by § 115.125, RSMo 2000. Because of the statutory procedure for assessing and mailing tax bills, school tax levy increases approved after September 20^th cannot be levied against property in the district until the following tax year. Sections 164.021, 164.041, RSMo 2000. Southwestern Bell Telephone Co. v. Mahn, 766 S.W.2d 443 (Mo. banc 1989), verifies this premise. But, under certain circumstances, § 137.300, RSMo 2000, requires the county clerk to prepare a supplemental tax book.

The form of the ballot to be used in property tax increase elections is set out in § 164.031, RSMo 2000. Failure to specify the purpose of a proposed tax levy increase will invalidate a voter-approved increase because voters must be informed of the purpose of a levy. MO. CONST. art. X, § 11(c); Street v. Maries County R-1 Sch. Dist. of Maries County, 511 S.W.2d 814, 816 (Mo. 1974).

Taxes “shall be uniform upon the same class or subclass of subjects within the territorial limits of the authority levying the tax.” MO. CONST. art. X, § 3. Before 1985, the law...