The Cole County Board of Equalization sent a property tax exemption application Monday from a new boarding school to the Missouri Tax Commission.
The Board of Equalization met in the morning to hear challenges from organizations who disagreed with property assessments. St. Nicholas Academy President Elizabeth Huber told the board it should exempt her new boarding school from paying approximately $13,000 per year in property taxes because St. Nicholas Academy will use the building for educational purposes.
However, commission members said the organization may be required to own the building in order for it to get an exemption.
Huber envisions St. Nicholas as a boarding school for low-income students. Students will be housed in a building at 1310 Edgewood Drive leased from Capital Region Medical Center for $1 per year. Schooling will be done at St. Peter Interparish School and possibly Helias Catholic High School.
Capital Region paid $12,771.21 in property taxes on the building last year, according to tax records from the Cole County Assessor’s Office. Capital Region buildings used for its hospital enjoy charitable status and St. Nicholas applied for the exemption under its status as a 501(c)3.
Cole County Assessor Chris Estes, a non-voting member of the commission, said that by law the owners’ use of the building determines whether an organization can be exempted from paying property taxes on a building. Estes said a $1 lease to a nonprofit organization could amount to a lease of approximately $13,000 per year in money Capital Region would save on property taxes.
“We have several not-for-profit organizations that lease areas from other companies in town, but those buildings are still taxable,” Estes said. “I would love to be able to grant an exemption if the law allowed it.”
Huber said she hopes students will be able to stay in the building from age 4 through high school. Because St. Nicholas plans to house students at the property, but outsource education to another school, Estes said it makes the building no different under the law than residential properties used for home-schooling, which do not receive property tax exemptions,” Estes said.
“If you owned the property and classes were being taught at the property, and that was the primary use, then it would be exempt,” Estes said. “Under these circumstances it’s not exempt.”
Board members include all three Cole County Commissioners, two representatives from Jefferson City staff if the property is within city limits and two at-large positions. Cole County Western District Commissioner Kris Scheperle and other board members expressed support for the academy. Whether it can be given an exemption under the law remained unclear though.
“The formal schooling will be at St. Peters School, but there’s a whole lot more to it than just learning reading, writing and arithmetic,” Scheparle said. “It’s their life skills that really need help.”
Three members of the board voted for the exemption. Three members voted against. Cole County Presiding Commissioner Sam Bushman abstained from the vote.
The deadlock means St. Nicholas’ application for an exemption will next go to the Missouri State Tax Commission.
Huber said she sees the school as what she will work on for the rest of her life.
“That’s worth a fight,” Huber said.
Ameren
The board of equalization also chose to uphold real estate assessments of property owned by Ameren Missouri. Ameren had appraised property worth $54.55 million in Cole County in 2018. Ameren estimated that figure sat at around $28.7 million.
The utility continues to appeal assessments from 2013-16. Cole County is one of 16 counties where Ameren has gas line equipment.
A series of conflicting court rulings eventually remanded the Cole County case back to the Missouri State Tax Commission, who will hear the case in September.
Estes recommended upholding the assessments, given rulings by the tax commission could change property assessments for the gas equipment anyway. The board voted 6-0 to approve the measure after Bushman again abstained from the vote.
Menard’s
The board also upheld the value of Menards’ building at 810 Stonecreek Drive. Cole County pegged the appraised value at $12.24 million. Menards estimated the building is worth $6.4 million. The company did not send a representative to the meeting.