2011 budget summary - St. Louis County

DEPARTMENT OF REVENUEproperty owners. The division is organized byfunction: Document Copies/Research Document/Plat Recording Federal and State Liens Marriage LicenseSpecialized maps,Graphic services,Copies from microfilm,Programming,Web design and posting, andHardware and software support.Assessment DivisionThe Assessment Division discovers, identifies,classifies and assesses all real and personal propertywithin St. Louis County. The assessed value isapplied to the tax rates established by the taxingauthorities to determine the amount of tax leviedagainst a property. Functionally, the division iscomprised of: Abstract (Title Recording) Appraisal Support Assessment Systems Personal Property Real PropertyBy Missouri State law, the Assessor is required toreassess all real property to market value everyother (odd) year. The process involves estimatingvalues on approximately 389,000 parcels of realproperty, providing owners the opportunity toappeal, then finalizing, certifying andcommunicating the values to the individual taxingauthorities.Land and Revenue Information ServicesLand and Revenue Information Services (LRIS) hasthe responsibility for the maintenance andreproduction of the official set of locator and zoningmaps for St. Louis County. All maps containingpolitical subdivision boundary lines are maintainedby the division, as well as a master address filesystem that is updated daily to accurately reflect allknown addresses throughout St. Louis County. LRISalso provides information technology services andsupport for all software systems used by theDepartment of Revenue and maintains thedepartment’s website. Services available throughLRIS include:LRIS also provides, on a fee basis, various computerreports as requested by St. Louis County agencies orarea commercial organizations.Director’s OfficeThe Director’s Office supervises the Collection,Assessment, Recorder of Deeds, and Land andRevenue Information Services Divisions, as well asthe Board of Equalization and Licensing Offices. TheBoard of Equalization (BOE) consists of three (3)citizens appointed by the County Executive to hearappeals on property assessments. This office alsoprovides advocate services to property owners whowish to avail themselves of the County’s informaland/or statutory appeal process. Administrativesupport for the BOE is provided by the Director’sOffice. The License Office issues liquor licenses aswell as other miscellaneous business andamusement licenses and collects hotel/motel taxes.The Director of Revenue also serves as the Trusteeof delinquent tax properties that have not been soldat the public auction for three consecutive years.The Director’s Office provides comprehensivepersonnel and payroll services for all departmentalemployees and is Custodian of Records for thedepartment.- 238 -