SB 1285 - Effective January 1, 2009, for all charter counties and the City of St. Louis, assessors are required to provide the city or county clerks with assessment books on or before March first of each year. The city or county clerks must make abstracts of the assessment books showing the aggregate amounts of different types of property and the valuations of each type for each political subdivision levying taxes on property. The governing bodies of political subdivisions must use the information provided in the abstracts to informally project non-binding tax rate levies and provide such projected levies to the clerk no later than April 15th of each year. Utilizing the projected tax levies, the county collector must then calculate the projected tax liability for each property for which the assessor intends to provide a notice of increased assessed value by April thirtieth. Failure by a political subdivision to provide projected tax levies by April 15th will result in a twenty percent reduction in such political subdivision tax levy for the tax year. However, if a political subdivision's failure to provide projected tax levies in the time prescribed is due to a delinquency in the provision of, or a failure to provide, the required information by either the clerk or the assessor, no such reduction will be triggered. Charter counties and the City of St. louis must provide a notice of projected tax liability with the notice of increased assessed value provided by the assessor. The notice of projected tax liability will provide detailed information regarding the taxation of a property owners property, including the projected tax liability, the previous year's assessed value of the property and the previous year's tax liability. Beginning January 1, 2011, all counties will be subject to the same projected tax liability and notice requirements applicable to the City of St. Louis and charter counties.
JASON ZAMKUS