SECOND REGULAR SESSION
94TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY
INTRODUCED BY REPRESENTATIVES CUNNINGHAM (86) (Sponsor), JONES (89), NIEVES, RUESTMAN, NOLTE, BROWN (30), STEVENSON, DAVIS AND SCHARNHORST (Co-sponsors).
Pre-filed December 18, 2007 and copies ordered printed.
D. ADAM CRUMBLISS, Chief Clerk
AN ACT
To amend chapter 137, RSMo, by adding thereto one new section relating to the predictable property tax act.
Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the state of Missouri, as follows:
Section A. Chapter 137, RSMo, is amended by adding thereto one new section, to be known as section 137.109, to read as follows:
137.109. 1. This section shall be known and may be cited as the "Predictable Property Tax Act".
2. Notwithstanding any other provision of law to the contrary, after August 28, 2008, all real property in this state shall be assessed under the provisions of this section. The assessor of each county may use any applicable procedures authorized under this chapter before August 28, 2008, to accomplish assessments under this section.
3. No real property tax imposed on any real property in this state shall exceed one percent of such property's true value in money except as provided by this subsection. The taxing authority may exceed the one percent limitation in each subsequent assessment to reflect cost-of-living increases, but not to exceed two percent or the percentage of increase over the previous year in the Consumer Price Index for the Midwest Region as prepared by the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics, or its successor index, whichever is lower.
4. No amount of real property tax revenues received by a county shall exceed the real property revenues produced in 2006, excluding new construction or property improvements and cost-of-living increases as provided in subsection 3 of this section. In the event that the real property tax levies will result in more property tax revenues than were produced in 2006, excluding new construction or property improvements and cost-of-living increases as provided in subsection 3 of this section, the taxing authority shall decrease the percentage of the levy to ensure the real property tax revenues do not exceed the revenues produced in 2006, excluding new construction or property improvements and cost-of-living increases as provided in subsection 3 of this section. In the event that any real property tax revenues in such county will be lower than the revenues received in 2006, the taxing authority shall not increase the percentage of the levy to produce the same real property tax revenues that were produced in 2006, but the lower amount of property tax revenues received shall be the new real property tax amount ceiling in that year and for real property tax calculations in the following year. In all subsequent years, if the real property tax revenues are lower than the previous year and a new lower real property tax rate is produced, such rate shall be the rate ceiling for the following year.
5. No real property tax amount due on any real property shall be more than the amount due on such property in 2006, excluding new construction or property improvements. In the event the real property tax amount due on any real property is more than the amount due on such property in 2006, excluding new construction or property improvements, the taxing authority shall decrease the percentage of the property tax imposed on the property to ensure the property tax amount due does not exceed the amount due in 2006, excluding new construction or property improvements and cost-of-living increases as provided in subsection 3 of this section.
6. The true value in money of real property may be reduced to reflect substantial damage, destruction, or other factors causing a decline in value.
7. In the event that any piece of real property changes ownership, and assessing the real property as provided in this section at the time of the sale would result in a lower true value in money than the previous assessment, the assessor shall lower the true value in money of such property accordingly, and such lower true value in money shall be the base for determining increases in the property tax assessed on such property as provided in subsection 3 of this section.
8. The limitations in this section shall not apply to any taxes, tax increases, bonded indebtedness, or special assessments approved by the voters.
9. The true value in money of any new construction or property improvements to real property shall be equal to the cost of such new construction or property improvements, and shall be added to the true value in money of the real property determined before such new construction or property improvements occurred. For purposes of this section, new construction or property improvements made solely for maintenance or remodeling of existing real property shall not be construed to be new construction or property improvements to be assessed under this subsection.
10. Any person fifty-five years of age or older may transfer the true value in money of the real property to any replacement dwelling of equal or lesser value located within the state and purchased or newly constructed by that person as the person's principal residence within two years before or after the sale of the original property. For purposes of this section, "replacement dwelling" means a building, structure, or other shelter constituting a place of abode, whether real property or personal property, and any land on which it may be situated. For purposes of this section, a two-dwelling unit shall be considered as two separate single-family dwellings. This subsection shall not apply to any person who has purchased or transferred a principal residence under subsection 11 of this section.
11. (1) For purposes of this section, "changes ownership" shall not include the following:
(a) The acquisition of real property as a replacement for comparable property if the person acquiring the real property has been displaced from the property replaced by eminent domain proceedings, by acquisition by a public entity, or governmental action that has resulted in a judgment of inverse condemnation. The real property acquired shall be deemed comparable to the property replaced if it is similar in size, utility, and function, or if it conforms to state laws and rules governing the relocation of persons displaced by governmental actions;
(b) The purchase or transfer of the principal residence of the transferor in the case of a purchase or transfer between parents and their children or between grandparents and their grandchildren if all such grandchildren's parents that are children of the grandparents are deceased as of the date of the purchase or transfer;
(c) The purchase or transfer of the first one million dollars of the true value in money of all other real property between parents and their children or between grandparents and their grandchildren if all such grandchildren's parents that are children of the grandparents are deceased as of the date of the purchase or transfer.
(2) This subsection shall apply to both voluntary transfers and transfers resulting from a court order or judicial decree.
(3) A purchase or transfer of a principal residence shall not be excluded under subdivision (1) of this subsection if the transferee grandchild or grandchildren also received a principal residence, or interest therein, through another purchase or transfer that was excludable under paragraph (b) of subdivision (1) of this subsection. The true value in money of any real property, other than a principal residence, that was transferred to the grandchild or grandchildren under a purchase or transfer that was excludable under paragraph (b) of subdivision (1) of this subsection, and the true value in money of a principal residence that fails to qualify for such exclusion, shall be included in applying the one million dollar true value in money limit specified in paragraph (c) of subdivision (1) of this subsection.
12. (1) As used in this subsection, "qualified contaminated property" means residential or nonresidential real property that is all of the following:
(a) In the case of residential real property, rendered uninhabitable, and in the case of nonresidential real property, rendered unusable, as the result of either environmental problems, including but not limited to the presence of toxic or hazardous materials, or the remediation of those environmental problems, except where the existence of the environmental problems was known to the owner, or to a related individual or entity as described in subdivision (4) of this subsection, at the time the real property was acquired or constructed. For purposes of this paragraph, residential real property is uninhabitable if that property, as a result of health hazards caused by or associated with the environmental problems, is unfit for human habitation, and nonresidential real property is unusable if that property, as a result of health hazards caused by or associated with the environmental problems, is unhealthy and unsuitable for occupancy;
(b) Located on a site that has been designated as a toxic or environmental hazard or as an environmental cleanup site by a department of this state or the federal government;
(c) Real property that contains a structure or structures thereon before the completion of environmental cleanup activities, and that structure or structures are substantially damaged or destroyed as a result of those environmental cleanup activities;
(d) Stipulated by the lead governmental department, with respect to the environmental problems or environmental cleanup of the real property, not to have been rendered uninhabitable or unusable, as applicable, as described in paragraph (a) of this subdivision, by any act or omission in which an owner of that real property participated or acquiesced.
(2) The true value in money amount of the qualified contaminated property, as adjusted as authorized by subsection 4 of this section, may be transferred to a replacement property that is acquired or newly constructed as a replacement for the qualified contaminated property, if the replacement real property has a fair market value that is equal to or less than the fair market value of the qualified contaminated property if that property were not contaminated and, except as otherwise provided by this clause, is located within the same county. The true value in money amount of the qualified contaminated property may be transferred to a replacement real property located within the state. This subdivision shall apply only to replacement property that is acquired or newly constructed within five years after ownership in the qualified contaminated property is sold or otherwise transferred.
(3) In the case in which the remediation of the environmental problems on the qualified contaminated property requires the destruction of, or results in substantial damage to, a structure located on that property, the term "new construction" shall not include the repair of a substantially damaged structure, or the construction of a structure replacing a destroyed structure on the qualified contaminated property, performed after the remediation of the environmental problems on that property, provided that the repaired or replacement structure is similar in size, utility, and function to the original structure.
(4) It shall be rebuttably presumed that an owner of the real property participated or acquiesced in any act or omission that rendered the real property uninhabitable or unusable, as applicable, if that owner is related to any individual or entity that committed that act or omission in any of the following ways:
(a) Is a spouse, parent, child, grandparent, grandchild, or sibling of that individual;
(b) Is a corporate parent, subsidiary, or affiliate of that entity;
(c) Is an owner of, or has control of, that entity;
(d) Is owned or controlled by that entity.
If this presumption is not overcome, the owner shall not receive the relief provided for in subdivision (2) or (3) of this subsection. The presumption may be overcome by presentation of satisfactory evidence to the assessor, who shall not be bound by the findings of the lead governmental department in determining whether the presumption has been overcome.
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