County Assessor forced to up valuation 12 percent

Several thousand Ozark Countians received an unpleasant real estate tax impact statement in their mailboxes this week - a statement of tax increases. Ozark County Assessor Jama Berry says she’s fought against the increases for several months, but it is being enforced by the Missouri State Tax Commission.

Berry and other county assessors are being forced to raise assessed valuation of residential properties and all structures. 

And Berry is not happy.

According to the Memorandum of Understanding the assessor’s office sent to those affected, along with the impact statement, this will raise the assessed valuation of most real estate in Ozark County 12% to 15%. And that falls short of what the tax commission initially wanted. The memorandum states that the 2023-2024 real estate taxes for Ozark County property is only 45.81% of the market value. However, the state tax commission says that the acceptable parameters are between 90% and 110% of the market value.

Berry says she knows that such an increase would create a hardship on property owners in the county and she’s been fighting against raising the assessed valuation for several years. This year alone, Berry says she has made several trips to Jefferson City to speak with the commission along with multiple phone calls and emails. Unfortunately, the pleas seem to have reached deaf ears.

Berry didn’t want to sign the increase. However, if she had refused to sign, Ozark County would have lost state funding of nearly $40,000 or a little less than 20 percent of the office’s budget. A few counties didn’t sign the increase, and some of those counties lost hundreds of thousands of dollars. For instance, the Taney County assessor refused to sign, and the county will lose almost $165,000.

So for now, most Ozark County property taxes will increase 12% and will most likely continue to be raised 12% every two years in order to reach the state tax commission’s “acceptable parameters.”

“They don’t understand our county. They don’t understand our people,” says Berry. “Counties like us, Shannon, Oregon, for example, our people just can’t afford these increases. We’re not like St. Louis or Greene County or even Taney County.”

Berry says the commission wanted her to raise the valuations 15%, the maximum amount its allowed to be raised before being required to physically inspect all properties and structures inside and out. She refused, saying that especially with all the devastation the county has had this spring, that would create too much of a hardship, one that many people just wouldn’t be able to absorb at all. And, she argued, property values of many will likely go down because of the damages caused by the harsh weather.

“I know that the property values went up during covid because so many people were just buying up properties,” she says. “But it’s not that way right now.

“This is not a 12% to 15% tax dollar increase,” Berry also stressed. “This is an increase in the assessed valuation which is a percentage of the appraised [property] value.”

Berry encourages people to contact members of the state tax commission and House Representative Matthew Overcast if they want to voice their displeasure at the increase. “Please call,” she says. “Our office has been fighting this [for a long time].”

Phone numbers and email addresses, with the exception of Overcast’s, are listed on the Memorandum of Understanding that were mailed out. Rep. Overcast’s phone number is 573-751-2042 and he can be also reached by email at Matthew.Overcast@house.mo.gov.