Missouri AG Bailey sues Jackson County, alleging increased home valuations broke law

Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey on Tuesday filed a lawsuit against Jackson County, alleging the county illegally increased homeowners’ property assessments.

The lawsuit, filed in Jackson County Circuit Court, accuses county officials of violating state law by failing to give homeowners proper notice of the increased property assessments, failing to perform physical inspections of certain properties and handling property owners’ appeals in an “an illegally performed and dysfunctional” process.

“Jackson County’s 2023 Assessments were not only unlawful, but the failures were systemic – from failing to provide proper notice and inspections under the law, to coercing property owners to drop their appeals,” the lawsuit from Bailey, a Republican, said.

The Missouri State Tax Commission, which oversees property tax laws across the state, filed the suit along with Bailey against the county, various county officials including Gail McCann Beatty, a former Democratic state lawmaker who serves as director of the Jackson County Assessment Department, and Tyler Technologies, a company involved in the county’s tax assessments.

Spokespeople for Jackson County and Tyler Technologies did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Tuesday.

Bailey, in his suit, alleges that the county’s assessments resulted in an average increase of at least 30% across the board. Some property owners, the suit alleges, reported increases higher than 100%.

The lawsuit asks a judge for an order declaring void any increase in assessed value of certain properties as well as monetary damages to Jackson County property owners “as appropriate.” It also asks for an order forcing the county to comply with state law.

Bailey’s suit comes just a day after fellow Republican state Auditor Scott Fitzpatrick alleged the county used a “flawed and inadequate” property assessment process that violated state law, affecting up to 200,000 homeowners.

Fitzpatrick, who released the preliminary findings of his office’s ongoing audit of the county, urged homeowners whose valuation rose by more than 15% to only pay their taxes under protest. That process allows owners to file a lawsuit if they don’t receive the refund they believe they’re owed.

Many Jackson County homeowners have been outraged for months after assessments jumped significantly this year. Residential property values increased by roughly 40% overall since the last assessment in 2021, according to county data.

The City of Lee’s Summit sued Jackson County over the assessment process in September; property owners have also filed multiple lawsuits that were argued in front of the Missouri Supreme Court last week.

Property assessments, which take place every two years, have long been a source of controversy in Jackson County. Many houses were chronically undervalued, McCann Beatty and other officials have said, until she began raising valuations in 2019.

The uproar over the increased assessments has prompted some lawmakers in the GOP-controlled Missouri General Assembly to propose legislation to make the assessor in Democratic-leaning Jackson County an elected position.

The assessor is appointed by the county executive – currently Democrat Frank White, Jr. – and Jackson County is the only charter county in Missouri that doesn’t elect the position.

Separately on Tuesday, the Missouri Supreme Court ruled in favor of Jackson County and Tyler Technologies in two separate rulings related to the assessments. In one ruling, the court ruled 7-0 that a lawsuit against the county should be dismissed because a series of property owners failed to exhaust other options before suing the county.

In another 7-0 ruling, the court made permanent an order that lower courts must dismiss claims in a lawsuit that put the technology company at fault for the increased assessments.