County Assessor

ADOPTED FY23 BUDGET

$16,815,685

Office Mission

FULL TIME EQUIVALENTS

172.8

The mission of the Assessor’s Office is to fairly and accurately assess all real and personal property in the county, in accordance with applicable law and professional appraisal practice, and to provide excellent customer service.

Budget Overview

The 2023 adopted budget for the Assessor’s Office is $16,815,685, an increase of $1,030,064 or 6.5 percent from the 2022 adjusted budget of $15,785,621. Personnel costs comprise 72.7 percent of the budget for 194 positions (172.8 full time equivalents). Operating expenses account for 27.0 percent and capital expenses account for 0.3 percent of the budget.

Core Business Functions

The Assessor is responsible for:

→ The accurate and timely classification and valuations of all real property and all tangible personal property in St. Louis County

→ The performance of all administrative functions of the two Boards of Equalization

→ The review of all petitions for tax‐exemptions of tangible personal property and real property, and submission of recommendations regarding the same to the Boards of Equalization

→ The production and updating of official St. Louis County real estate information, including locator maps and maps containing parcel boundary lines

→ The maintenance of current records regarding real estate title transfers and related plats, and certificates of value

→ Timely, accurate and customer‐friendly public service by providing property values and reassessment information

Program Descriptions

Real Property

The Real Property Division is responsible for establishing the fair market value of approximately 400,000 residential and commercial real estate tax parcels. Missouri law requires that real estate be reassessed every two years (in odd‐numbered calendar years). To ensure that county records accurately reflect the value of a property, appraisers physically inspect every residential property whose value increases by more than 15 percent from the prior reassessment. Additionally, every parcel of real property receives a physical inspection at least once every six years, and appraisers physically re‐inspect any property if a request is made by the property owner.

Personal Property

The Personal Property Division is responsible for annually establishing the fair market value of all tangible personal property. For individuals, personal property includes approximately 920,000 vehicles of all types, including automobiles, motorcycles, campers, trailers, boats, personal aircraft, and off‐road vehicles; it also includes livestock and agricultural equipment. For the approximately 560,000 accounts of all types, personal property includes all tangible personal property, and equipment located in St. Louis County on January 1. All valuation is in accordance with the requirements of Missouri law:

 Values for vehicles and most other types of personal property are set according to the National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA) and similar guidelines

 Livestock and agricultural crop values are based on schedules issued by the State Tax Commission (STC)

 Tangible personal property is classified by type and original costs, and are depreciated in accordance with statutory schedules based on Internal Revenue Service Recovery Tables

Administrative Services

The Administrative Services Division is responsible for managing the systems, applications, and data bases necessary for assessment and taxing functions. The services provided include the following:

 Maintaining “base‐line” information used to produce maps and other vital assessment applications such as aerial imagery, addresses, and parcel and taxing district boundaries;

 Producing and updating St. Louis County real estate information, including locator maps and all maps containing parcel boundary lines;

 Maintaining current and accurate records regarding real estate title transfers, and related plats and certificates of value;

 Performing clerical functions essential for assessment including data entry, document scanning, and maintenance of accurate records of various types

Boards of Equalization

In 2021, a second Board of Equalization was created. At the direction of the Boards’ members, the Assessor’s Office now provides a full range of year‐round administrative support to both boards. This is necessary for the fair and efficient functioning of the boards. The boards are independent bodies, appointed by the County Executive, approved by the County Council, and report directly to the Director of Revenue.

Fiscal year 2023 is a reassessment year. The staff anticipates handling approximately 25,000 appeals of all types to the Boards.

Strategic Priorities And Performance Metrics

 Continuously improve the accuracy of property valuation (GG – Efficient and Responsible)

 Continue converting critical functions to a completely paperless process (GG – Constituent Experience)

 Upgrade public data portals and promote public use of the same (GG – Constituent Experience)

 Provide enhanced training to appraisal professionals and other staff (GG – Improve Effectiveness)

Achieve a Coefficient of Dispersion of 15% or less as a measure of the accuracy of valuations as determined by the State Tax Commission*

*Each reassessment year (every odd‐numbered calendar year), the State Tax Commission (STC) employs ratio studies to measure the accuracy of assessed values set by each county assessor’s office in Missouri. The International Association of Assessing Officers – an international professional organization that sets standards for assessment methodology – has established a 15% coefficient of dispersion (COD) as the threshold standard for ratio study results; numbers higher than 15% are considered less accurate while those lower than 15% are considered more accurate.