I shall keep this very brief. I want to provide two clarifications to Justin’s latest response.
I never stated that property taxes should never go up on homes, which is sort of how it works in California. What is going to be passed by the Legislature is a change removing the increases brought about by reassessment — an idea I fully support. Local government bodies would still be fully empowered to pass increases of the property tax rates within their jurisdictions. The extremely important difference is that a tax increase passed by either the voters or an elected body is the proper and democratic way to increase taxes and raise government revenues (the two are not always linked) in the (rare) circumstances where tax increases are prudent. Increasing tax revenue through reassessment, on the other hand, is not how Missouri’s property tax system was set up to work, and is an underhanded and improper manner of increasing government revenues.
Finally, Justin wrote:
"So homeowners like David are grandfathered into a nice little tax haven with this legislation."
I am not a homeowner. It was my wife’s house before we got married and we have never gotten around to changing the title, so it’s still all hers. If you ever see me on an episode of "Cops" wearing the traditional garb being confronted by the local constabulary, I won’t have a very good argument for being the one spouse allowed to remain on the property, no matter how drunkenly I argue that she started it.
