Belle tax rates remain the same, auditor denies increases

Posted 9/22/21

A unanimous decision by the Belle Board of Aldermen on Sept. 14 to raise taxes for the city was not approved by the Missouri State Auditor’s Office due to a paperwork deficiency according to …

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Belle tax rates remain the same, auditor denies increases

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A unanimous decision by the Belle Board of Aldermen on Sept. 14 to raise taxes for the city was not approved by the Missouri State Auditor’s Office due to a paperwork deficiency according to Mayor Josh Seaver.

“We were not in compliance with the state’s Hancock Amendment,” Seaver said on Sept. 17 about the situation. “The Hancock Amendment talks about how much the city can increase taxes. We didn’t interpret what we were doing right, I guess.”

Belle City Clerk Cindy Schulte said she had reached out to both the Maries County Clerk and Osage County Clerk for assistance with the issue.

“The way I understood from the Osage County Clerk, the rates we have put on the form to increase taxes were out of compliance,” Schulte said. “They came into the office to fill out the paperwork and make sure we had the right numbers to put on the form.”

After the city sent the paperwork to the auditor, they received a response that they were out of compliance and were not allowed to raise rates without being in compliance.

“The tax rates are still down where they were before,” Schulte said. “We have to turn in another form to be able to claim the tax rates. It comes down to some kind of law and the form we need is to justify the increase in the tax –– a recoupment form to justify the increases. The form was sent in and the tax rates aren’t going up this year.”

The city is now in compliance with the Hancock Amendment and will be seeking an increase in city taxes for the next fiscal year according to Seaver.

“The city desired to raise tax rates to the max because of the massive infrastructure problems and budget shortage,” Seaver explained as the city continues to deal with increased water main breaks in town and an extension of a strongly recommended boil order that has since been repealed. “For a lack of a better way to say it, we didn’t know what we were doing and here we are. We were all new to this and didn’t exactly know what we were doing.”

Current tax rates in place were recommended by Maries County and Osage County since the city has to send paperwork to both counties.

According to Maries County Clerk Rhonda Brewer, the tax rates for the 2020 fiscal year were .6492 to the general fund; .1589 to Parks and Recreation; and .2416 to the Roads District 6. The city’s proposed tax rate for the 2021 was recommended by the county is the same as the 2020 rates. The rates for 2021 have already been certified by the Missouri State Auditor’s Office.

“The city wanted to raise their tax rates to the ceiling at $1,” Brewer explained Tuesday morning. “However, with the Hancock Amendment, they can’t just raise the rates to the allowable ceiling.”

The Hancock Amendment requires the city to justify the increase with paperwork and explain the recoupment.

“They put in a recoupment rate, but they still needed to do the paperwork,” Brewer said.

The city is in compliance with the Hancock Amendment now, but they did not receive the $1 increase per $100 of assessed valuation and Brewer said they may not receive it next year.

“They may not be able to do an increase in tax rates,” she explained. “They can take a reduction, but they can’t increase the rates unless the auditor says they can.”