On a gray morning late November, Mati Waltemeyer loaded flowers for a funeral delivery while her sister McCall Bodehamer cut stems for bouquets.
They're partners in Olive and Honey, the name they chose when they bought a florist shop and the building that houses it in 2022. They renovated the 130-year-old brick building to boost sales from local customers and attract tourist traffic drawn by nearby Missouri Star Quilt Co.
"We took down a wall, and we doubled the square footage of our home decor and gift area," Bodehamer said.
They expected the improvements would add to the building's taxable value. What they didn't anticipate was that the Caldwell County Assessor's office would double or triple the assessments on almost every commercial building in Hamilton.
When the tax bill came at the start of November, it showed Waltemeyer and Bodehamer owed $2,783, up from $564 in 2024.
The new values weren't based on a whim of the county assessor. The county signed agreements with the Missouri State Tax Commission to boost both commercial and residential appraisals after studies showed values were below market rates.
"We did not pick on Hamilton," Assessor Tracy Bowen said in an interview with The Independent.
The sisters' shock at a 393% increase in their tax bill is an extreme example of something that can happen to property owners anywhere in the state. If the value of an individual property increases faster than properties generally during biennial reassessments, the result can be a dramatically higher tax bill.
Taxpayers are supposed to be protected by the Hancock Amendment of the state constitution, which requires tax rates to be lowered when property values rise faster than inflation.
The problem is, that cap is on total revenue from property taxes, and most taxing districts charge a single rate for all types of property — residential, commercial, agricultural, personal and "centrally assessed" railroad and utility. So when values in one subclass rise faster than the average increase, the tax burden shifts.
One solution — to require separate tax rates for each property subclass — is gaining momentum as the 2026 legislative session approaches. It will be the centerpiece of recommendations from a Missouri House committee that spent the summer studying property taxes, said the chairman, state Rep. Tim Taylor, a Bunceton Republican.
"Without question, you're going to see that kind of leading the charge," Taylor said. "I really, truly believe, as do others, that that will eliminate many of the ills that people have suffered."
Shifting burdens
Of the five types of property values that make up the total assessment for the state's nearly 3,000 individual taxing districts, the values for only two, residential and commercial, are based on what the county assessor estimates is what the property would sell for if it changed hands.
For the other three — personal property like cars, farmland, and railroad and utility property — values are set on a statewide basis. Assessors use national trade-in values for vehicles. The State Tax Commission sets values for farmland and determines the market value for railroad and utility property.
Outside of St. Louis County, all types of property in a taxing district are in one metaphorical bucket for taxation. The constitutional cap on revenue allows the bucket to grow as prices rise generally.
A rollback reducing tax rates takes place when reassessment causes revenue to exceed the cap. Any rollback applies to all property, so properties that go up more than average pay more and those that do not pay less.
A report from a Missouri Association of Counties Property Tax Task Force says the current system is "diluting the rollback effect."
"How is this happening if Hancock is working correctly?" asked Steve Hobbs, executive director of the association, before answering his own question: "It's not."
Mike Brown, a New York Life representative in Hamilton organizing efforts to mitigate some of the commercial assessment increase, said he understands the need to align taxable values with market values.
But a more measured approach, he said, would have been easier to accept.
The assessment on Brown's office building increased 175%, from $23,000 to $63,375. His taxes rose from $570 to $1,850. Setting aside a new levy to pay city bonds for street improvements, the bill is 171% higher than in 2024.
Brown admits the value set by the assessor is probably correct, but a more gradual increase would make more sense.
"They are changing these assessments all in one tax year instead of 10%, 15% per year over the last 10 years or so," Brown said.
Shifting ratios
Statewide, about 55% of all taxable property is residential, according to tables published in the State Tax Commission's 2024 annual report. Commercial and personal property each account for about 20% of the total. The smallest portion is farmland, less than 1.5% of all assessments, and what is left is the state-assessed utility and railroad properties.
Over 10 years, the ratio of property types to the whole hasn't changed dramatically — about 2.5 percentage points have moved among the subclasses — but owners of the subclasses growing fastest are feeling the shift in their bank accounts.
Tables published in the State Tax Commission's 2014 report show a total state assessment of $97 billion. The 2024 tables put that figure at $152 billion, an increase of 56%.
Residential values are driving the increase, up 63%. Farmland values increased the least, only 15%.
In Caldwell County, one of the factors pushing taxes to commercial building owners is a far different mix of property than the state as a whole. Residential property is only about one-third of the total, while two large pipelines make the state-assessed portion almost as large.
Reassessment this year, for the first time, pushed the total value of commercial property in the county above the value given to farmland. Since 2015, Caldwell County's total assessed value has increased 52%, led by a 77.8% increase in commercial property values.
In that same period, the assessed value of farmland has gone up only 20%.
This year, the assessed value of commercial property throughout Caldwell County increased 14.5%, farmland went up 2% and the value of centrally-assessed property declined.
Hamilton cut the tax rate for city services by 9% to comply with the Hancock Amendment. The city understands the distress reassessment created for business owners, City Administrator Lauren Dannar said.
"We've tried to do everything we can to assist in this," Dannar said.
Static amounts set by the tax commission for the productive value of farmland, unchanged since 2015, contribute to the shift in the mix of property values. The values now are below the amounts used in the 1980s, even as market prices for farmland have soared 40% since 2018.
The centrally assessed railroad, pipeline and utility values set by the commission have also lagged behind the general increase, going up only 43% over the past 10 years.
The diminishing share for farmland and state-assessed properties was a regular complaint during hearings, said state Rep. Kathy Steinhoff of Columbia, the ranking Democrat on the House committee studying property taxes.
"One common theme we see, she said, "is that the state tax commission has really put pressure on our local assessors to assess fairly, but they are not doing it themselves, and they are doing it on properties that impact almost every one of our communities."
The lobbying power of agriculture and utility interests, Hobbs said, contributes to the imbalance.
Residential assessments have been climbing because of changes to the housing market after COVID, Hobbs said, and have outpaced the other property classes. That pushes taxes onto homeowners, who are paying more while some property owners have seen tax cuts of up to 40%, he said.
"The very bedrock of property tax is that it should be fair, equitable and affordable for all," Hobbs said. "The system is not broken, but it needs to have modern solutions."
Homeowners in some neighborhoods of south St. Louis received tax bills that doubled or tripled after this year's reassessment. The values rose faster than the general increase because demand for homes caused a rapid increase in value or the homes had been undervalued for years, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported.
Separating classes for individual tax rates would mean each is in its own, smaller bucket. Lumping everything together, Taylor said, is what shifts the burden.
"If the assessed value goes up, but it's not enough to overflow, then nothing changes," he said.
While the state tax commission doesn't establish local market values for residential and commercial properties, it does monitor how those properties are valued. When appraisals fall below a target of 90% to 110% of local market values, the commission can ask assessors to increase them.
The commission can withhold funds appropriated to support assessment inspections and other work if the local values aren't updated.
Prior to the most recent reassessment cycle, 76 counties were asked to sign a memorandum of understanding with the commission that they would increase residential assessments, and 64 did so.
Ten counties were asked to sign a memorandum covering commercial real estate and nine signed. Caldwell County along with five others signed both. That is why in June, Brown and other property owners in Caldwell County received notice of the assessment increases.
Residential properties were valued at about 80% of the market and would go up modestly, the notice read. Commercial appraisals, however, were much further off. Assessments on some of those properties, then-Assessor Beverly Alden wrote, would increase by 200% or more.
Multiple rate effect
Every county in the state has the option of forgoing the single rate for all property in favor of rates by subclass.
In St. Louis County, where it is already used, tax rates fall when assessment increases within a subclass rise faster than inflation, but only for property owners within that subclass. St. Louis County adopted the system of separate rates in 2003 and, as a result, residential properties generally pay the lowest rates, followed by commercial property owners.
Among the 159 taxing entities in St Louis County, 71% cut the tax rate ceilings for residential property and 63% cut the ceilings for commercial property following reassessment in 2023.
Only six taxing districts reduced rates on personal property like automobiles.
Statewide after the 2023 reassessment cycle, 23% of tax rate ceilings were reduced in counties that use a single rate. Tax rates increased for 15% of levies, mainly because of local elections approving new taxes.
And the gap between the lowest and highest rates within each district in St. Louis County grows with every reassessment cycle.
After the 2023 reassessment, a report from the State Auditor's office shows, tax rates on residential and business properties in some St. Louis County districts were 30% or more below the rate for personal property like automobiles.
The gaps are largest in school tax rates, the biggest piece of almost every property tax bill. The lowest rate allowed for school purposes is $2.75 per $100 of assessed value, while most other tax rates are below $1 per $100.
The St. Louis County school district with the largest difference between the lowest and highest tax rates in 2023 was Bayless in the southern part of the county. Residential property owners paid $3.083 per $100 assessed value, while personal property taxes were set at $5.3231 per $100.
That $2.24 per $100 gap is almost 26% greater than the largest difference in 2019.
In two of St. Louis County's 21 school districts, homeowners pay only the minimum school tax rate while other property owners pay more.
A multi-rate system is attractive, Steinhoff said.
"What relief it provides is when one class has a significant change in its value, its assessment, it's providing relief within that class that is not spread out," she said.
But if counties turn to a multi-rate system, it means locking each property class into its current share of the total tax, she said. With farms, utilities and railroad property lagging the general increase over many years, lawmakers must consider what is fair to all taxpayers, she said.
"One of the things that we have to be really cautious about is, are we going to continue to just base (tax rates) on one moment in time, and maybe not question whether the balance was right in that one moment in time," Steinhoff said.
The tax commission hasn't taken an official position on implementing a multi-rate system, general counsel Greg Allsberry said in an email to The Independent.
"However, the commission believes that separating subclasses for the purposes of determining rates could strengthen the effectiveness of the state's Hancock Amendment," Allsberry said.
The committee is recommending other changes, ranging from expanding the three-member tax commission, limits on its power to force large increases in assessments and lowering the target for how close to actual market prices a county must be, Taylor said.
"There is no one cure all," he said, "but you're going to find that there's a dozen things that are noticeable, and a dozen fixes that can all work together to make this better."
Improved outreach to taxpayers would help people understand what a new assessment means, how to appeal if they disagree and what other options they have if their tax bills spike, Steinhoff said.
"A lot of that just needs to be cleaned up," she said. "It's almost like the customer service end of things we have really dropped the ball on."
Too late
There is only one stop sign and no traffic lights on Davis Street in Hamilton.
Visitors can admire the recently installed statue of Caldwell County native James Cash Penney, the founder of the JCPenney department store chain, or shop at more than half-dozen stores operated by Missouri Star Quilt Co.
The hot place in town for entertainment is Jiggs and Gigs, about a half mile west of the stop sign. Denise Anderson and Ellen Williamson renovated a vacant former feed store, installed a kitchen and built a stage.
They have 20 employees and a big tax bill to pay. The improvements and reassessment boosted the taxable value by more than 500% and their tax bill went up by a similar amount.
Anderson and Williamson have the right to appeal the assessment. But at this point in the process, they will have to pay their tax bill in full but under protest, identifying the portion of the assessment they are appealing.
"We were told there is no solution," she said. "Just pay it or shut up."
This story was originally published by the Missouri Independent.
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