There are about a quarter-million people in St. Louis County above the age of 62 (back of the envelope) and 70,000 of them have applied for the county’s senior property tax freeze, locking in place the taxes they pay on their homes even as its value rises. But while less than one-third of the county’s seniors have availed themselves of the freeze, 100 percent of the seniors on the County Council, which passed the legislation, have.
The program has saved seniors an estimated $30 million thus far, but has also taken some flak because the county is running an $80 million budget deficit and that money has to come from somewhere. Beyond that, school districts are getting hit: Rockwood is set to lose $4 million funds. Parkway, $2.7 million.
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One of the four council members who took the freeze, Rita Heard Days, acknowledges that any program that reduces tax receipts is concerning, but says she applied to get a first-hand account of how the system works. Along the way she discovered some issues, specifically “cumbersome and duplicative” communication between the county and the applicant. She adds: “I have not checked to see if there was any benefit to my taxes. I have been too busy to look into it.”
We, however, were not too busy: Days’ bill went down by about $50, even as the assessed value of her home went up. Those savings could continue to accrue in the years to come, although people availing themselves of the freeze need to apply for a renewal annually.
As for Councilman Dennis Hancock, he says any criticism of the four members for taking the freeze is a canard. He says that in general property tax receipts for the county are rising, as last year saw the median property value increase by about 13 percent. He blasted County Executive Sam Page, a longtime political foe, for publicizing the hit that county tax rolls took from the senior freeze while not releasing the overall increase those same rolls have enjoyed due to the spike in property values.
About his own freeze, Hancock added: “If I thought my $20 in county tax savings would eliminate the Page administration’s $80 million budget deficit, I would gladly forego it.”
Also reached for comment, Councilmen Mark Harder and Michael Archer froze us out.
It’s worth noting that county politicians having their property taxes scrutinized is not new. Back in 2023, Page’s property taxes on his house were revised downward, spurring Fox 2’s Elliott Davis, still in his “You Paid For It” days, into action. Davis was quick to note that of all the houses on Page’s West County cul-de-sac, his was the only one that year to have its assessed value revised downward.
Absent from that report, however, was the fact that if Page had connived for some kind of deal, he would have been in cahoots with County Assessor Jake Zimmerman, who he had bested in a “contentious” primary just a few years prior.
