One of the key things to know about the real-estate-assessment ambush is that it was orchestrated primarily by people who have been slurping at the political trough for decades and are still making big bucks at taxpayer expense.
Victor Callahan
The key figures in this outrage at the state level are the three members of the Missouri State Tax Commission, which ordered counties to bring their assessments up to actual valuation. Two of the three commissioners — Will Kraus of Lee’s Summit and Victor Callahan of Independence — slid into their bureaucratic posts after hitting their term limits as state senators.
The third member, Chairman Bruce E. Davis, is a baked-and-boiled bureaucrat. He has been on the commission nearly 20 years and chairman since 2005. Before going on the commission in 1990, he was administrative secretary to the tax commission for six years. And before that, he worked in the Department of Revenue. (I believe he lives in Columbia.)
All three commission members are all being paid well over $100,000 a year.
Gail McCann Beatty
At the local level, the key figures are County Executive Frank White — who can’t even handle his personal finances — and County Assessor Gail McCann Beatty, whom White appointed last year after she was about to be term-limited out as a state representative.
White and Beatty are also making well over $100,000 a year.
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Before delving more deeply into the players, let’s turn to the policy issue here — local officials’ assertion that property valuations had to be brought up to true market value in one fell swoop.
That’s just ridiculous. (It’s also “outrageous, egregious, preposterous,” as Seinfeld attorney Jackie Chiles would say.)
Real estate valuations could and should have been raised (or lowered, as the case may be ) over four or six years. Missouri counties reassess every two years. Phase I could have been implemented this year, and the job could have been completed in 2021 or 2023.
But, no, Frank White and Gail Beatty chose to do it all at once, claiming it had to be done that way because the State Tax Commission said so.
That is such a cop-out because, as we all know, where elected officials are concerned, everything is negotiable.
The Star’s Mike Hendricks wrote today the commission informed Beatty in April “your county (is) out of compliance with State Tax Commission (STC) requirements.”
So why couldn’t Beatty and White have sought a meeting with the tax commission and tried to negotiate a two-or three-step process that would have eased the pain for taxpayers?
Or why couldn’t they simply have decided to phase in the true-market valuations and see how the tax commission reacted?
I seriously doubt the tax commission would have dragged the county into court. I’ve never heard of that happening and, besides, the commission consists of people whose main concern is keeping low profiles and continuing to draw their fat salaries.
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Now, back to the players.
Another striking aspect of the assessment ambush is how quickly people like Kraus, Callahan and Beatty have forgotten they once owed their livelihoods to the goodwill of voters.
As elected officials, they would have fought tooth and nail to stop any explosion of property valuations and, by extension, tax increases. But as soon as they got into appointed positions where they were immune from voters’ whims, they suddenly became staunch advocates of “upholding the law.”
For example, listen to what Kraus had to say after it was announced he was being appointed to the tax commission:
“Now a new call to serve has come, one that aligns with my legislative experience and affords me the opportunity to continue my lifetime commitment to service. Being an advocate for smaller government and lower taxes has been the cornerstone of my legislative career. Accordingly, I am honored to accept the governor’s appointment and look forward to continuing my work on behalf of the taxpayers of the great state of Missouri.”
“An advocate for lower taxes.” Yeah, sure…He did get one thing right, though, he’s a “lifer” as far as being on the public payroll is concerned.
Will Kraus
Kraus, a Republican, was a state representative from 2005 to 2011. He was elected to the State Senate in 2010 and re-elected in 2014. He ran unsuccessfully for the Republican nomination for secretary of state in August 2016 but lost to Jay Ashcroft. His path to higher elective office blocked, he sought the safety of a bureaucratic job and was appointed to the State Tax Commission in 2017 by then-Gov. Eric Greitens.
Callahan, a Democrat, was an Independence city councilman and a member of the Jackson County Legislature before being elected to the State Senate in a special election in 2003. He was re-elected to the Senate in 2004 and 2008. On Dec. 31, 2012 — at the very end of his second and last full Senate term — he was appointed to the tax commission by then-Gov. Jay Nixon.
Beatty, a Democrat, was a member of the Missouri House from 2011 to 2018. Because of term limits, she could not have run for re-election in 2018. She has long been a leader of the Jackson County political group Freedom Inc.
(Side note: I am very disappointed The Star has not profiled Beatty. To the best of my knowledge, none of the recent spate of stories about the higher property valuations has even mentioned she is a former state representative.)
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One thing I can tell you for sure: If Beatty, Kraus and Callahan had to face the voters, like they used to, they would not be so intent on “upholding the law” and trying to jam true-market valuations down taxpayers’ throats. They would be doing what the Jackson County legislators are doing, that is, kicking and screaming about this underhanded development.
Unfortunately in this particular instance, power in county government is centered in the county executive’s office. The Legislature’s hands are bound.
As for Frank White, he has pulled off two remarkable feats in the last decade: First, he managed to alienate his former team, the Kansas City Royals, probably by demanding a ridiculously high salary for relatively little work.
Now, in the space of several weeks, he’s managed to alienate voters. Let’s just hope he doesn’t do any more significant damage before his term expires in 2022. If he runs for re-election, we’ll have a chance to get rid of him once and for all.
JimmyCsays: At the juncture of journalism and daily life in KC 
Good article, Jim. It explains a lot of things about this mess!
Thanks, Regina.
As a Stanford University grad and a certified appraiser for over 25 years, Gail Beatty is eminently qualified to be our county assessor.
I suspect she DID try to reason with the Commissioners, who had, very likely, been heavily lobbied by local school districts — chief beneficiaries of property taxes. KCPS even paid for some of the appraisers the county used. (Think there might be more than a few dots to connect between KCPS-paid appraisers and properties that saw the highest increases?)
In any case, county assessors don’t tell state commissioners “how it’s going to be.” That’s the job of citizens: public outcry and a class action lawsuit were warranted and that’s what they got.
In addition to settling this matter at the polls and in our courts, Governor Parsons needs to ask for the resignations of the state tax commissioners.
A lot of supposition there, Pam…If Beatty did seek forbearance from the State Tax Commission, I don’t think it’s been reported. There’s certainly been nothing to that effect in The Star, and Mike Hendricks has been talking to her.
Also, I haven’t read anything about the Kansas City School District paying for some of the reassessment costs, and I’m dubious about connecting dots between “KCPS-paid appraisers and properties that saw the highest increases.”
The commissioners have terms. The tax commission’s website says Kraus’ term expires January 2020, Callahan’s in January 2024 and Davis’ in January 2010. (Yes, 2010. Does that say something about the tax commission’s attention to detail?)
(And I’m not questioning Beatty’s qualifications, just why she turned her back on the taxpayers so quickly.)
1) IMHO, the speed with which home appraisals are brought up to market values is a secondary issue, albeit an extremely critical one. The primary issue is whether the market values established by the county are accurate in the first place. For anyone who thinks those market values are largely accurate, I challenge you to watch this clip from Channel 5 and still maintain that opinion.
https://www.kctv5.com/news/local_news/tax-property-assessment-numbers-don-t-add-up/video_16fefdab-2dfa-5f5b-a175-e56b36f34982.html
2) Hendricks wrote this in his article: “If taxpayers still find fault with (Beatty’s) decision, they can appeal to the Board of Equalization.” In a Channel 9 news story, Preston Smith was quoted as saying “even if the board listened to each appeal for just a few minutes, it would take more than a year” to hear them all. How in the world can the BoE hear all of the appeals it has received within the time constraints it has? By all appearances, it just can’t be done.
3) Angie Ricono, the investigative reporter for Channel 5, has done an outstanding job of reporting on this issue. Anyone interested in this topic should go to the Channel 5 website, click on “Investigations” under “Menu, ” and there you can find her reports. On the other hand, my award in the “What the Hell Were They Thinking” category goes to the Star editorial board for “There’s a simple solution for Jackson County property value spike: Cut tax rates.” The “simple solution” the editorial suggested was to just lower the tax rate, while totally ignoring the overwhelming number of flaws in the underlying market values. As Seinfeld’s lawyer would say, the editorial was outrageous, egregious, and preposterous.
Both Clay and Platte Counties have reassessed per state directive (I already received mine a year ago and paid the tax changes to begin 2019) and the Kansas City taxpayers in those counties are going to pay KC property taxes based on their assessed value. If the Kansas City portion of Jackson County wants to suppress assessments, it means the Kansas City Northland counties are going to be paying more than their fair share of the Kansas City property tax burden. And let’s not forget that the land area of Kansas City in the Northland is the size of New York City – that’s a lot of property paying Kansas City property tax. And after the next census, it is likely that 6 of the 12 Kansas City council districts will be in the Northland. That political clout is not going to stand for one set rules for Kansas City-Jackson County and another set for the rest of Kansas City.
A house two doors from me sold the end of last month. I was working in my garage yesterday and someone from the Platte County assessors office showed up for 20 minutes taking pictures, measurements, etc. for the new assessment on that house. So it is an ongoing process here now. That Jackson County has a screwed up process (that they let linger being bad for years) is not going to gain much sympathy from the adjoining counties property owners.
As I said in Jim’s previous post about this, this is a class action suit waiting to happen on behalf of Clay and Platte County Kansas City residents if Jackson County somehow backs down on reassessment. And if you don’t there are not people over in Heather Hall’s council district thinking about this right now, you are fooling yourselfs.
I don’t think the solution is to have one levy rate for Kansas City in Jackson County and a different levy rate for the Kansas City portions of Cass, Clay and Platte counties. I don’t think that is legal, creates it’s own set of problems, and would be difficult to defend in court.
I realize you Jackson County residents are upset, but because the Kansas City city limits extend into four counties (and the other three have already done their work, notified their property owners, and in some cases, taxes have already been paid on the new assessment), this is more than a Jackson County issue.
FWIW: Based on my research, it appears the Plaza 2019 appraised value (approx. $430M) is $230M less than the 2016 sale price.