Mid Rivers Newsmagazine 3-20-24

12 I NEWS I
March 20, 2024
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Surprises may be coming in Senior
Property Tax Relief Program
FREEDOM FROM CHRONIC
PAIN: JOIN US FOR AN
INFORMATIONAL SESSION
TO LEARN HOW
BY: DR. BETH TEMPLIN, PT, DPT, GCS
GERIATRIC PHYSICAL THERAPIST
If you've been living with chronic
pain off and on for years, it's
tempting to brush it off as a "normal"
part of aging. You may think that
because everyone your age seems
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that it's something you will have to
learn to live with.
You may not know when it was that
you started to have pain every day,
but now it's starting to limit what
you're able to do. Maybe now you
even have pain that lasts from the
time you wake up to the time you go
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you're not alone. The reason these
option don’t always work is they are
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not addressing the root of the
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When: April 5th at 2:30 pm
Where: 3809 Lemay Ferry Rd,
63125
*Attend in-person or join us online
from your home. Call us at (314)
939-1377 to register. Limited to
the first 20 people to register.
HouseFit
3809 Lemay Ferry Rd.
Saint Louis, MO 63125
(314) 939-1377
info@housefitstl.com
www.housefitstl.com
By JOHN TREMMEL
At the March 11 St. Charles County
Council meeting, Michelle McBride,
county collector of revenue, provided
an update about the Senior Property Tax
Relief Program, saying the program successfully
launched on March 1 as planned,
with the first application arriving online
at 1:41 a.m. that day. She also hinted that
changes could be coming.
McBride said by March 8, the department
had received 4,637 applications,
with 2,209 submitted online, 428 via
email and 2,000 via paper forms. Applications
are due by June 1. County staff
anticipate about 38,000 will be received
in total.
McBride explained that online applications
can be submitted to the county
website via smartphone or computer, via
paper at a drive-up drop box on Monroe
Street or a special locked drop box in the
lobby of the administration county building
on Second Street or handed to the
clerks at the windows in the administration
building.
To apply for the tax relief program
online, seniors can go to the website at
https://www.sccmo.org/261/Collector-of-
Revenue, then find the “Senior Property
Tax Relief Program” in the menu at the
left side of the webpage.
Electronic submissions via phone
or computer require digital photos or
scanned copies of proof of ID (driver’s
license, passport or other governmentissued
ID showing birth date) and proof
of property ownership (warranty deed).
Paper submissions require photocopies
of proof of ID and proof of property
ownership.
All applications require the property tax
ID (PIN) from the senior’s 2023 property
tax bill, the applicant’s phone number and
the applicant’s email address.
McBride said information on the application
is closed from the Sunshine Law.
She said to obtain a copy of a warranty
deed, an email can be to the recorder of
deeds at RecorderCopyCenter@sccmo.
org. Name and property address must be
included.
McBride said the Missouri General
Assembly will be in session until May 17,
so the state law still could be changed.
“Something crazy could happen,”
McBride said, such as raising the age
from 62 to 67. Any changes to the state
law could mean the county ordinance has
to change as well. For that reason, confirmations
of program eligibility will not
start going out until June.
However, rejection notices will be sent
by email sooner to allow for the submission
of correct information before the
deadline. That is why including an email
address and phone number is so important
on the application.
McBride said the biggest misunderstanding
people have about the program
is that their “taxes will never increase
again.” She said only the non-debt portion
of the property tax liability is being
frozen. The debt portion, including the
State Blind Person Trust Fund, will not be
frozen.
Residents can visit www.StCharles-
MOCollector.com to see a breakdown of
2023 tax bills, showing debt and non-debt
items. Anything with “debt” behind it is
not frozen.
Asked by the council what that meant
and why, McBride said debt includes
bonds issued by political subdivisions,
such as ambulance districts and school
districts, where the voters approved the
bonds, so the district is obligated to pay
them off. That debt portion of property tax
is not frozen. She said getting involved in
political subdivision finances is outside
the scope of what property tax relief is
allowed to do.
McBride said another misunderstanding
is that tax rates are frozen and
assessed values are frozen; neither is true.
The state law and county ordinance say
the amount the taxpayer pays is frozen.
That kicked off a discussion by council
members, County Executive Steve Ehlmann,
McBride and city staff. It became
clear there are complexities to the tax
relief process that affect tax relief results.
McBride said her staff is a total of 15
people, and the recorder of deeds’ staff
is a total of 15 people, and by law their
duties are separate. Given all the work to
accept, review and process tens of thousands
of these applications between now
and June 1, she asked residents to, “be
patient and kind.”
Council chair Terry Hollander (District
5) closed the topic by saying, “I think
we’re in a situation now where there was
a lot of euphoria when we passed this, and
now the reality is setting in that people
are going to benefit, but there’s going to
be a little bit of work associated with it.
And I think the end result is some will be
disappointed because they’re expecting
more tax relief than maybe is actually
there. We’ll deal with that as we go.”