Nixon may back tax relief for Joplin businesses on Astini News
, On Wednesday August 31, 2011, 12:15 pm EDT
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) -- Gov. Jay Nixon said Wednesday that he is considering expanding the agenda for a special legislative session to include property tax relief for businesses destroyed by the deadly Joplin tornado or washed out by this year's flooding.
A Missouri law already allows property taxes to be pro-rated for people whose homes were destroyed by natural disasters. But that option does not currently exist for businesses, meaning they could have to pay property taxes on buildings that no longer produce income.
"Clearly there's a basic fairness issue there -- being taxed for something that doesn't exist, it makes not much sense," Nixon said.
Nixon already has scheduled a special legislative session to begin next Tuesday to consider new statewide incentives for certain businesses, including those that focus on science and technology-related fields and those involved in shipping goods internationally through the St. Louis airport. Lawmakers also are to consider bills rescheduling Missouri's presidential primary from February to March, repealing a law restricting teachers' interaction with students on Internet sites such as Facebook and granting St. Louis -- instead of a state-appointed board -- direct control over its police force.
Under the state constitution, lawmakers can only consider measures included by the governor in his call for an extraordinary session. So Nixon would have amend his special session proclamation to specifically include the proposed property tax relief for businesses.
"Assuming we could get to appropriate language that was crisply handled, I would not be opposed to including that," Nixon said. He added: "I think we've got a solid shot to get to that."
State Rep. Bill White, R-Joplin, has been urging Nixon to add the property tax relief to the special session. He said Wednesday that he had circulated draft legislation among lawmakers and the governor's office and was now working out the final wording.
"I think it's going to happen," White said.
In Missouri, local property taxes are assessed based on the value of property on Jan. 1. However, Missouri law gives counties the option of adopting ordinances that allow new homes to be added to the tax rolls when they are occupied in the middle of the year or existing homes to be removed from tax rolls if they are destroyed by natural disasters.
White's proposal would allow counties to adopt similar ordinances for commercial property that either opens or is destroyed after the normal assessment date for property taxes. The measure would be retroactive to the 2011 tax year, so it could benefit business hit by the May 22 tornado in Joplin or affected by other tornadoes and floods this year. A destroyed business that rebuilds later in the year would have its taxes pro-rated for the period of time when it was not open, White said.
"To me, it's just a no-brainer. If we want to do economic stimulus this session, what better economic stimulus is there for my community?" White said. "This is really about keeping jobs."
The Joplin tornado damaged about 500 businesses. Waiving their property taxes for the time the tornado kept them out of business would save them about $600,000 and cost county government and public schools an equal amount of money. Nixon already has pledged that the state will provide up to $1.5 million to Joplin schools to offset lost residential and commercial property taxes. White said he hopes Nixon would make a similar state commitment to offset the lost commercial property taxes to county government if the Legislature authorizes those taxes to be waived.
