Audrain County officials have opposed signing a memorandum of understanding with the state tax commission regarding specific assessed values.

Melissa Maupin, county assessor, told the Ledger during an interview with Audrain County Associate Commissioners Leslie Meyer and Tracy R. Graham that the state tax commission sent an MOU to Maupin stating that she needed to increase all the residential real estate values in the county by 12%-15%. She said commission officials wanted the county to do that because the county is not in compliance with the 90%-110% assessed property value mandated by the state. 

“We’re not talking about taxes, we’re talking about assessed values,” Graham said, adding that it’s the assessment value, or market value, of properties, not the tax value. Eighty-eight counties received the MOU from the state tax commission, and 14 counties, including Audrain, declined to sign it, Meyer said.

Maupin said when he received the state’s communication, she approached the county commission to talk about it.

“We did a good faith effort of increasing the residential land values by 12% and the state tax commission basically told us it was not high enough,” she said. “So I did not sign the memorandum of understanding.”

The Board of Equalization was issued an order by the state tax commission to increase all residential land values by an additional 10%, which would be a 22% increase if one takes into account the 12%. The Board of Equalization includes the commission, two real estate experts and the assessor and county clerk, the last two of whom don’t get a vote. 

“We voted as a board to agree with the assessor’s initial opinion that our values are where they should be, that we’re not going to increase,” Meyer said.

Maupin said she wasn't necessarily sure that that is where values “should be,” but said she and the board agreed that if the county did the increase, it would become a burden to the taxpayers.

The assessor’s office is funded through a state reimbursement per parcel, which is just a little over $51,000, and then Maupin’s office receives a small percentage of tax dollars collected - 1.5% of tax dollars collected. 

“The county does not contribute from general revenue to my fund,” Maupin said. “So my office survives on the little over $51,000 from the state and then the 1 1⁄2% of taxes. The state is withholding the reimbursement. So that money that has already been appropriated to the state to come back to Audrain County has now been withheld.”

Consequently, the office will have to make a few cutbacks, she said, adding that conferences that staffers attend will be affected. There are requirements of conferences Maupin has to attend, so she will continue to attend those. 

“We’ll probably just have to look at the budget and see what other cutbacks will need to be made as this progresses and as we get further orders from the state,” she said.

That money - the little over $51,000 - goes away in 2026, Maupin said. Graham said consequences haven’t taken effect because there has been no response from the state tax commission yet, and there are other counties in Missouri that are also refusing to sign the memorandum of understanding. The Board of Equalization refused to increase values by 12%-15% because the board is controlling what the Audrain County residents expect.

Graham said the state is trying to force local officials to do something and that officials are here to make decisions for the best interest of the county residents, that state tax commission asked counties to raise their assessment values without allowing them to have any local conversations. 

“That’s an unfunded mandate,” Graham said.

Meyer said the jump in the price of real estate in the last few years has been “unreal,” and because of that, “it seems really silly to me that we’re basing the whole system off of a market that we don’t know what’s going to happen.”

Maupin said the next step that will happen is once the tax commission receives the information about BOE’s decision to refuse compliance, then information will be turned over to the attorney general’s office for its investigation. 

Meyer said the county supports Maupin and her efforts to help the taxpayers.

“She’s not by herself in this - we all fully support her,” Meyer said. 

Gregory K. Allsberry, chief counsel for the State Tax Commission of Missouri, said in an email that regarding rising real estate values and taxpayers having a voice, the STC has the duty to “equalize valuation of each class of property by increasing or decreasing assessment valuations as needed in order to remain consistent with the ‘true value in money’ of the property, or market value.” He added that if property assessments are not substantially equalized within a county or among the various counties, this violates the Uniformity Clause of Article X, Section 3 of the Missouri Constitution.   

“As elected officials, county assessors and boards of equalization have the primary duty and responsibility to assess property in accordance with Missouri law, but when they fail to do so, the law requires the STC to step in and to add to or deduct from the valuation of classes or subclasses of property in order to assess them at true (market) value,” he said. 

He said a 15% increase in property assessments does not necessarily result in a 15% increase in a property owner’s tax bill.  

“Missouri’s Hancock Amendment was intended to limit tax levy increases to 5% per year or the Consumer Price Index, whichever percentage is less. Currently, CPI is 2.9%,” he said. “Thus, if assessments increase 15%, or 50%, or even 100%, the Hancock Amendment ought to limit actual tax bill increases to 5% or less. However, legislative changes may be needed in order to strengthen those Hancock Amendment protections.”