SB 190 seems to be dividing the community on what exactly it does and what it will do for our community. As your current state representative, I would like everyone to know why I supported and voted for SB 190.
The intent of this bill is to reduce the tax burden on seniors within our state and county. With the rising outrageous inflation and fixed income of Missouri seniors it only felt right to support this bill. Just for your information, the state legislature did not mandate this on the counties. We gave two options to the citizens to implement the bill. The first option gives each county commission to implement it in their county if they wish. The second option was to allow the citizen of each county to get a petition (signatures) to be filed so the citizen could vote on the issue.
I do want to say that when SB 190 passed in 2023, there were several issues that needed clarification. So, I do think that our county commissioners did do the right thing by waiting to get more clarification. In 2024, some clarification came out to help with the decision-making process.
Just a note, no bill is perfect.
Now, I will try to give you the basics of the bill. First, part of the bill addressed taking state income tax out of the social security benefit. This will be done as a refund, you may still have the state tax taken out during the year, but when you file your taxes, you will be given the credit for the state tax taken out. Now, the second part of the bill addressed freezing the assessed property value taxed on seniors. This portion of the bill would freeze qualifying seniors' property tax on a portion of their property (home, homestead).
Going forward, the qualifying senior would only pay taxes on the frozen assessment. One thing to remember is if the voters in the county would vote to increase school tax, hospital tax, fire department tax, etc. the seniors' taxes would increase by the amount the voters decided, but it would only be on the frozen asset value. Both of these issues attempt to reduce the tax burden on our seniors. There are guidelines that have to be met to qualify for each of these reductions.
Now, I would like to address the concerns and accusations being made about SB 190. First, my understanding that the CEO of Salem Memorial Hospital indicated if SB 190 would pass it would cause the closing of the hospital. This is very disturbing to me because I have been in constant contact with SMH board members since the passing of SB 190. They have never indicated it would cause them to close. I feel it is very unprofessional and misleading to make such accusations.
In 2023, I was able to secure $1 million from state funding dedicated to SMH to help them through the difficult times. I have been told several times that without the funding they don't know if they would still be providing services to our community. So, I have been very dedicated to helping SMH stay operational for our community.
SMH has the ability to ask for a tax increase to be put on the ballot, which could help keep them sustainable and keep providing necessary emergency services to our community. SMH has not had an increase in taxes in years, with the rising cost of health care, I for one would support an increase in my taxes to keep our hospital healthy.
I am not trying to pick sides here. I just want to make it clear why I support SB 190 and giving our seniors some relief from the rising costs and outrageous inflation. The one thing I want everyone to know is, NO tax entity is going to lose any money, they will continue to get the taxes from seniors based on the current assessment. Going forward they just will not receive additional funds from those qualifying seniors increased tax assessment. Everyone has the right to decide on this issue, but when does our government start giving instead of taking? By starting with our seniors, maybe our government will continue to reduce the tax burden on our property taxes and start replacing it with an alternative funding. We have to start somewhere and work together to help all our citizens. Again, everyone has the right to have their opinion, but you also need to know there is a lot of misinformation and personal opinions being put out on SB 190.
