Jackson County approves ordinance requiring Frank White to follow judge's order on property taxes
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A razor thin majority of Jackson County legislators want the Jackson County Executive to end a legal battle and follow the law. It all stems from property tax assessments that skyrocketed for many homeowners back in 2023.
Those property tax assessments are what protesters who rallied in Independence Monday say started a recall petition for Frank White. That effort has since been renewed.
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'It was time that we said look we've had enough, because this thing should not drag on as long as it has,' Les Williams said at the rally.
A judge ruled in favor of the State Tax Commission last week that Jackson County violated state law raising a majority of homeowners property taxes by more than 15%. 75% saw what equate to illegal increases under the law, some people saw them nearly double.
Questions arose when White didn't immediately say — or write to legislators Monday — that increases would be clawed back to 15% based on the ruling.
'We will not rush into any decision that could compound the confusion, misapply the law, or create further inequity in our property tax system,' White wrote in the letter.
'It's all the gamesmanship coming from the Executive and his cronies. We just need to get down to the brass tacks. We need to fix people's property taxes and we've got to stop doing these dramatic increases,' Legislator Manny Abarca said.
At Monday's meeting 5 of 9 legislators ordered White to follow the ruling and the law.
'The county does not escape this without taking corrective action nor should we. We did it wrong, we should fix it and we should fix it soon so we don't continue to compound the problem,' Legislator Sean Smith said.
'It's shocking that anyone would vote against following the law but thank God we had enough people to show that we should follow the law,' homeowner Ginny Henson said.
Those who voted against the ordinance pointed to the list of all the cities, schools and fire districts who could lose revenue, money already spent, with no clear answers from the State Tax Commission on how long they'd have to issue tax credits.
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The debate comes as the Jackson County Assessor nears a June deadline to issue 2025 assessments. Smith raised questions whether caps on increases would use the starting point on your home's assessed value last time, or the maximum it should have been legally.
White, who was not at Monday's meeting, said .
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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