By Mark Marberry
Associate Commissioner Second District
Due to the passage of the senior citizen tax freeze (also known as SB190) during the April 8 municipal election, the Ste. Genevieve County Commission along with other elected officials will be working on adopting the policies involved with enacting this program.
This will be a lengthy process involving a few months with the input of all of the affected entities such as school districts, ambulance and fire districts-three of which are brand new as of this same election.
As state statute 137.1050 as written is extremely vague on how to administer this program, in the coming months the Commission and others involved will be having public work sessions on how to implement this new program. The county will review the work of other counties as well as determining how we can best proceed. As a result, please note that no one at the courthouse, other counties or anywhere else can yet give answers to how this will be finalized.
There are some issues with this freeze that the county can answer as addressed below:
- This is a tax freeze, not a rebate. The county or any other entities involved will not be writing checks to anyone.
- As this is a freeze on the tax amount, this is not an exemption. All taxpayers will continue to pay the taxes as currently constituted.
- As this petition was passed in April 2025, the freeze will not apply to this year. The program will commence in 2026.