Air Force veteran fears loss of home due to taxes
By Andy Alcock
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JACKSON COUNTY, Missouri (KMBC) — A pending lawsuit could mean Jackson County, Missouri’s entire 2023 property assessment process could be tossed out.
On Thursday, County Executive Frank White sent Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey a letter asking Bailey to drop the suit.
In the letter, White claims the suit could cause irreparable harm to schools in Jackson County and threaten other services.
“Don’t right a wrong because it’s going to hurt children. You got to look back at the taxpayers as well,” said Jackson County Legislator Manny Abarca.
Allan Diamond has invested his life savings in his Lake Lotawana home.
But Diamond says he could lose it because the county says that home is worth more than double what a Veterans Administration assessor says.
Diamond says nobody ever came to inspect his property, and he didn’t receive an assessment in the mail.
He said when he went to the assessor’s office to find out what was happening, he was told to sign an appeal letter.
“What they said was coercion. I never had a document with any figures on it, monetary or otherwise, other than the date of the meeting,” Diamond said.
The pending lawsuit claims Jackson County failed to conduct inspections on properties as required by law before reassessing them.
Bailey has created a website to get complaints from Jackson County property owners.
So far, he’s received about 1,000 of them, including one from Diamond.
“I call it the abhorrent. Reaching in my pocket from around the corner,” he said.
A record 54,000 property owners appealed their 2023 Jackson County assessments.
Roughly 12,000 of them haven’t been heard yet.
Jackson County Assessor Gail McCann Beatty says all those appeals won’t be heard until 2025.
Currently, the county is doing virtual appeals instead of in-person ones.
The trial for the lawsuit is scheduled to begin June 6.
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