KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Even after Ted Wienstroer “won” his appeal of Jackson County, Missouri’s assessment of his property, after the value of his South Plaza home rose 27% compared to 2022.
The increase made Wienstroer one of about 200,000 property owners the Missouri Auditor called “victims” of a flawed assessment procedure in a preliminary report released Monday.
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Missouri Auditor Scott Fitzpatrick said the county didn’t adequately notify property owners of their rights and options when their assessed value increased by more than 15%.
“Something’s gotta change,” Wienstroer said. “There’s an awful lot of people in this county who’ve been hurt by this assessment.”
The auditor’s preliminary report recommended possibly invalidating any valuations over 15%.
“I’m happy they [auditor] have done this,” Wienstroer said. “Nothing’s going to happen between now and the due date for my taxes, so I’m still going to have to pay it.”
Taxes are due Dec. 31, 2023. Steve Engel put his check in the mail Friday. He did not challenge the county’s assessment of his property.
But he believes there should be a checks and balances system to prevent valuations increases of more than 15% without a thorough review.
“I expect it’ll be a different process in two years,” Engler said referring to the next assessment cycle in 2025. “They don’t want to do this again and people are going to fight if they can fight and they should.”
Both Engler and Wienstroer are happy to pay their fair share of taxes, with fair being the keyword.
“I have never complained about paying my fair share in taxes, income taxes, property taxes, this just blows me out of the water,” Wienstroer said.
He’s not as optimistic as Engler that the county will improve the system by 2025.
In a statement, Assessor Gail McCann Beatty said there were several mistakes in the auditor’s report, including confusion on whether the assessor is required to send inspection notifications before or after estimating valuations.
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