Court Opinion

ID: 9759440
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 00:16:19.955678+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T10:04:08.591255
License: Public Domain

SIMEONE, Judge,
concurring.
I concur in the majority opinion of Don-nelly, J., not because I believe that the trial court erred in issuing its order but because I believe that the issues are so complex and are of such state-wide concern that the whole issue should first be addressed by the State Tax Commission.
If the issue were purely a local one and if it were clear that the trial court in St. Louis County had the authority to order statewide reassessment, I would affirm the judgment.
Under the law the assessor in all counties shall assess property at one-third its true value. Section 137.115, as amended, 1973, p. 213, § 1. The law is clear to me that the State Tax Commission not only has the authority to exercise general supervision over all assessing officers of the state and county boards of equalization, but is required to enforce all the laws “relating to the general property tax.” That duty is clear under § 138.410. The power of the Commission is not merely to call upon the attorney general to seek penalties but the attorney general is to “represent the commission in any litigation which it may wish to institute or in which it may become involved in the discharge of its duties.”
To me it is the duty of the Commission, under its charge under the law, to devise without unnecessary delay a system in conformity with acceptable assessment practices to require assessments will conform to the law, to seek the necessary implementing funds, to cooperate with the General Assembly, to issue such guidelines it deems necessary to see that the law is enforced and to resolve the assessment problem not only in St. Louis County but throughout the State where it is required. This, of course, *330cannot be done overnight. But the process should begin now. The Commission, in my opinion, has the power and it should be exercised. I have every confidence that all segments of government which have the power to resolve the issue can cooperate and achieve a solution which will conform to the law within a reasonable period of time.
Decisions implying that the Commission has no authority to equalize intra-county equalization are, in my opinion, not controlling in view of the explicit mandates of § 138.410. The State Tax Commission has the power and, in my opinion, the duty to begin to implement its powers under § 138.-410, and under appropriate guidelines order assessors to follow the law and assess real property at one-third its true value.
If the Commission does not act within a reasonable period of time, then I agree with Judge Donnelly that “mandamus against the Commission may be sought in this Court.”