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Missouri House votes to halt ag tax hike

The Missouri House has approved a resolution that would prevent the state Tax Commission from raising the tax assessment value for the best farmland in the state. The resolution is sponsored by Representative Casey Guernsey of Bethany – who says it would be another increased cost for farmers, on top of higher fuel and other input prices. Plus, he says, many of the ag areas were subject to flooding last year, “I would simply contend that this is not a year for us to be raising taxes on farmers who have been absolutely devastated by the floods all across the state.”

Representative Ed Schieffer of Troy says raising the assessment value to eight percent would be a burden. “Why are we even debating this because even eight-percent is too much for some farms. It’s just too much for the small family farm.”

Schieffer says the “big buy” might survive under such an increase, “Quite frankly, the big farm, I’m not worried about. But, I have an awful lot of small farms in my district.”

The Missouri Senate would have to vote down the Commission’s recommendation by March 4th or the proposed eight-percent increase would go into effect.

~The Missourinet contributed to this report~