ASSESSOR ASTONISHED BY GROWTH
By Ralph Dummit
Of The St. Charles Post
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
May 16, 1996
Section: ST. CHARLES
Growth in St. Charles County continues to astonish county Assessor Gene Zimmerman.
"It's going wild," he said, commenting on construction and industrial expansion detailed in his annual certification of tax rolls. His report was presented Monday night to the County Council.
The county's total assessed valuation is $2.54 billion. That's an increase of 10.22 percent since the end of July, when the Board of Equalization completed its adjustments of property valuations.
Real estate assessed valuation rose by 5.62 percent, and personal-property assessed valuation soared by 26.06 percent.
New machinery and equipment bought for the resumption of production at the General Motors assembly plant at Wentzville accounted for an addition of more than $76 million to the personal-property tax rolls.
Newly assessed valuation of high-tech equipment at the Missouri Research Park amounts to nearly $12 million, as compared with last year's $5 million. Last year, however, the Board of Equalization allowed exempt ions to many of the companies at the research park that had appealed their tax bills.
New property at MEMC Electronics at O'Fallon increased in assessed value by $2.8 million.
About $75,000 was added to the tax rolls by Casino St. Charles. Matt Brown, director of special assessments, said the small increase indicates "that the account has stabilized, but this is after the casino sold one gambling boat and a small excursion boat, so there is still some growth occurring."
Construction of houses continues to increase, Zimmerman said. In 1991, 1,806 new houses were occupied. That figure spiraled to 2,739 just in the last six months.
Todd Powelson, director of market research in Zimmerman's office, reported on the increases in assessed value of property in three tax-increment finance districts, called TIFs. Each TIF district is given a certified initial equalized assessed value by the assessor's office, then tax revenue from any increase in assessed value beyond the base amount is disbursed by the collector's office to the TIF district to pay off the costs of infrastructures.
At Venture Industrial Park, the beginning property value was $3.1 million. By this month, that assessed value of the property had grown to $3.8 million, with $734,600 going to the district to pay off bonds.
Similarly, the St. Peters Center Redevelopment Area started with an initial assessed value of $3.8 million and has increased to $5.4 million. The Convention Center Redevelopment Area started with a base total of $3.4 million and now is $4.5 million.
In 1994, the assessor's office conducted 298 informal hearings regarding taxpayers who said they had been over-assessed. That figure fell to 111 last year, a 63 percent decline. Brenda Muschany attributes the decrease "to the taxpayers better understanding of the reassessment process and closer attention to the real estate market and the availability of more information from the certificates of value."
