ST. LOUIS COUNTY, Mo. – The St. Louis County Council is making breakthrough progress on efforts to approve funding to provide a property tax freeze for senior citizens.
Tuesday afternoon, the council held a committee meeting, hosting officials from the Department of Revenue that would administer the program. Qualifying seniors over 67 years old could expect to see a tax freeze.
The program was stalled after the council voted down a $1.3 million measure for funding. Some thought there wouldn’t be any progress expected this year.
Chairwoman Shalonda Webb says there is effort to move forward in the program.
“The senior tax credit is the law of the land in St. Louis County. What we’re now trying to figure out is how we implement that efficiently and effectively; there’s no guesswork on whether or not we will do it,” she said. “We will take care of our seniors because that’s what the council voted to do…so we’re going to make sure that we deliver on a promise that we made to our seniors.”
The Department of Revenue said it needed about $1.7 million to hire 28 workers and for software. Council members listened to St. Charles County officials Tuesday afternoon as to how they’re implementing the same program for a lot less.
Councilman Mark Harder says something doesn’t add up.
“They’re anticipating that we would need 28 people and that doesn’t seem to jive with what’s going on in other counties in this area,” he said. “We’re going to get it done; it can’t fail and it has to go forward. We just have to make sure what the number is, what’s the right number as we move through this.”