ST. LOUIS – Legislation to fund a program that would allow St. Louis County senior citizens a tax break on their homes was defeated in a meeting Tuesday night.
The program would allow those 67 years old and older to freeze property taxes on houses that were $550,000 or below.
The vote to give the county’s Department of Revenue $1 million to administer the initiative was defeated 4-3.
Councilman Ernie Trakas sponsored the legislation.
“Chair said she intends to schedule committee of the whole, so Director of Revenue can confirm (the) amount needed to implement the 2023 ordinance,” Trakas said in a message. “As a practical matter, this means that senior tax cap will not be implemented in 2024.”
Problems had already arisen within the effort before Tuesday’s meeting.
“Well, the council did what it was supposed to do; the council voted in November to have the senior tax freeze; of course, that’s the end of our responsibility,” Councilwoman Rita Days said. “The rest lies with the administration to pull the program together, get applications, figure out how we’re going to administer this and to my knowledge, it has not been done yet.”
According to Councilman Mark Harder, they would have anticipated approximately 400,000 applications.
“There is an item on tonight’s County Council meeting, introduced by Councilman Trakas, that would set aside $1,683,540 to stand up the program. Once the Council approves funding for the program, the Revenue Department will be able to begin the program. Right now, there is no funding to do so,” a statement from County Executive Sam Page’s administration said Tuesday.
Trakas had cut the proposed bill from $1.68 million to $1.3 million, but it was still rejected.
Senior residents are not pleased with the outcome.
“I think it’s not right,” Fred Williams, resident, said. “Us seniors, we need to have that. But we’re going to have to pay for all that stuff. It’s not right.”
Williams is not alone in this feeling.
“I think something should be done to get it going because I worked for 30 some years and I think seniors should get some type of break,” Susie Johnson, resident, said.
Some surrounding areas, like St. Louis City and St. Charles County, have already established programs to freeze taxes for eligible senior residents.
