"Mehlville Fix" Sent to Nixon

Missouri lawmakers have approved legislation that could assist the revenue collection process for the Mehlville School District.

According to a summary from Missouri legislature’s Web site, Rep. Gary Fuhr’s legislation—House Bill 506—would “require school districts that levy different rates on subclasses of real property, due to a ballot measure approved by voters prior to January 1, 2011, to revise their tax rates if the amount of revenue derived differs from the amount that would result from using a blended rate on all real property.”

The bill passed on Thursday 137-0 in the House and 32-0 in the Missouri Senate. It now goes to Gov. Jay Nixon.

In an interview, Fuhr said that in 2007, St. Louis County passed an ordinance requiring assessments for each of the four different sections of property tax. He added one unintended consequence of that was the state auditor’s office wasn’t able to issue a single rate because of the way statutory language was structured.

“So this was just to go clean up the language so the auditor’s office can include a single rate that took the four different rates for the different types of real estate property and blend it together so it would be easier for the taxpayers to (understand),” said Fuhr, R-St. Louis County.

The effect of the bill, said Rep. Marsha Haefner, R-Oakville, is that the Mehlville School District could see slightly increased revenues without having to hold an election.

“There are four different levels of tax collections based on whether it’s commercial, residential, agriculture and industrial,” Haefner said. “And what this does is it simplifies the formula for the tax collection. It will help increase some revenues is what I’m understanding for the Mehlville District without us having a bond issue or a vote.”

“It cleans up an unintended consequence of the way (the law) was written years ago,” she added.

Haefner said the bill would only impact the Mehlville School District.

“This will help them with their revenue stream to kind of be at the level of other districts,” she said. “It’s a benefit for the school district and it’s something that the superintendent had asked us to do.”

The measure, dubbed the “Mehlville fix,”was a legislative priority for several legislative sessions. It managed to pass along with a flood of other legislation in the last couple of days of the General Assembly’s session.

“And it’s not that the other representatives weren’t trying. It just never made it this far,” Haefner said. “It’s big deal that it got all the way through.”