County worried about drop in personal property value

Scott County News

BENTON - Scott County's total assessed valuation is slightly up, but personal property's drop has county officials concerned.

"I've been here for nine years and we've never been down in personal property," said Scott County Assessor Teresa Houchin.

Figures forwarded to the state auditor's office at the end of May showed the county's $3,049,820-million gain in real estate was severely offset by a $2,149,820-million drop in personal property.

"Personal property is down all over the state of Missouri," said Houchin.

Houchin said farmers getting out of the farming business and chicken farms with no chicks as of Jan. 1 account for some of the loss. One company in the county lost over $1 million in property as compared with the previous year, she noted.

But Houchin believes the real reason for the drop in personal property is that people were not buying new vehicles immediately following the Sept. 11 terrorist attack. New cars people are driving now were probably not owned as of Jan. 1 and will not show up on the tax books until next year.

As tax receipts being required for vehicle registration has been an effective way of making sure vehicles are reported as personal property, Houchin also wonders if only requiring vehicles to be registered every other year instead of annually has had an effect. "They're just not turning them in, I guess," she said.

Based on the valuation information from the assessor, the county commission reduced the voluntary rollback on both the general revenue and road and bridge levies when setting the 2002 tax rates during their Aug. 15 meeting.

General revenue is up 1 cent for 2002 from the previous year at 10 cents per $100 assessed value. The general revenue ceiling is 37.51 cents for Scott County.

The road and bridge tax was raised just under a cent from last year's 29 cents to its ceiling of 29.89 cents for 2002.

The tax for Johnson Grass was approved in Scott County at a constant 1-cent rate.

In other Scott County news, county economic developer Jim Schwaninger said he has been working with the 9/11 Memorial Wall project in Sikeston. "I think the community will react real positively to that," he said during Tuesday's county commission meeting.

During the 10 days the 9/11 Memorial Wall will be displayed, organizers plan to release more than 3,000 balloons, each commemorating a victim. Sponsorships will be accepted on the balloons and names on the wall can be adopted for a $10 contribution in that person's memory.

Schwaninger said the proceeds will be split between the Child and Family Recovery Program at New York University's Child Study Center and the Sikeston Department of Public Safety which will use their share to purchase a Thermal Imaging Camera.

The device allows firefighters to "see" through the smoke in burning buildings to help with rescues, Schwaninger explained.