HERMANN – Saying it was following the intent of the state legislature, the Gasconade County Commission last week set 2024 as the base year for calculating a property tax-credit granted for homeowners 62 and older.

The move was made as Gasconade County voters get ready to decide the fate of the program commonly referred to as Senate Bill 190, the legislation that was approved and signed into law in 2024 that freezes the level of assessment of the primary residence of homeowners 62 and older.

SB 190 is a local-option program with implementation dependent on either adoption of an ordinance by the county’s governing body; or, approval by a county’s voters. The Gasconade County Commission, like those of other 3rd-Class counties, does not have ordinance-making authority — that makes a countywide vote necessary. SB 190 was placed on the Nov. 3 General Elections ballot through an initiative petition spearheaded by county resident Cheryl Bohl.

During a previous Commission session, Bohl argued that the base year should be 2024, as indicated in the legislation, and not a later year, such as the year a homeowner becomes eligible to apply for the tax credit. That was advocated by County Assessor Julia Baker, noting that setting 2024 as the base year will be costly to the various public entities that rely on a property tax for operating revenue.

Indeed, that point was made by Gasconade County R-1 School District Superintendent Geoff Neill at the Commission’s meeting Oct. 1 in Owensville. He told county administrators that going back that far “will be damaging to us” regarding revenue loss.

Presiding Commissioner Tim Schulte, R-Hermann, Thursday morning offered the motion to set 2024 as the base year after a telephone conversation with outside legal counsel Ivan Schraeder after last week’s Commission session. “His recommendation was…go when it was enacted and let it roll…as the bill intended,” Schulte said, referring to 2024.

For the past few weeks, Baker had been asking the Commission to select a base year in order for the Assessor’s Office and the Collector’s Office to begin preparing for the tax credit program, although she did not favor 2024.

“The farther back you go, the more (revenue) the political subdistricts are going to lose,” the county assessor said.

“I realize that,” Schulte replied.

Southern District Associate Commissioner Ron Hardecke, R-Owensville, favored this year as the base year. “I still say we should use ‘26 as the base year because that’s when we’re voting on it,” he said.

It’s widely believed that SB 190, much like SB 3, which voters approved in April, will be passed by a significant margin. The key part of the debate swirling around the SB 190 and SB 3 is that if the courts ultimately rule that SB 3 is constitutional, it would supercede SB 190 by make all homeowners, not just those 62 and older, eligible to apply for a property tax credit on their primary residence. SB 190 is being proposed as a fall-back measure to ensure some type of tax break in the event SB 3 is ruled unconstitutional.

Arguments in the trial of SB 3, heard in Cole County Circuit Court, have long been over. But, for reasons unknown, the judge who heard the case isn’t expected to issue his ruling until perhaps the middle of next year. It’s widely expected that regardless of that ruling, the case will be appealed to the Missouri Supreme Court.

In making the motion to set 2024 as the base year, Schulte said, “I wasn’t a big fan of it, but the legislature spoke.”

Northern District Associate Commissioner Jim Holland, R-Hermann, said selecting 2024 complies with the public’s wishes. “The people asked for it,” he said, pointing to the petition drive to get SB 190 on the ballot. “So, I’ll go along,” he said.

“This is what the legal counsel is suggesting,” he added.