Section 321.554

Title XXI PUBLIC SAFETY AND MORALS

Chapter 321

Effective - 28 Aug 2004, 3 histories, see footnote   (history) 

  321.554.  Adjustment in total operating levy of district based on sales tax revenue, exceptions — general reassessment, effect of. — 1. Except in any county of the first classification with more than two hundred forty thousand three hundred but less than two hundred forty thousand four hundred inhabitants, or any county of the first classification with more than seventy-three thousand seven hundred but less than seventy-three thousand eight hundred inhabitants, or any county of the first classification with more than one hundred eighty-four thousand but less than one hundred eighty-eight thousand inhabitants, or any county with a charter form of government and with more than one million inhabitants, or any county with a charter form of government and with more than two hundred fifty thousand but less than three hundred fifty thousand inhabitants, when the revenue from the ambulance or fire protection district sales tax is collected for distribution pursuant to section 321.552, the board of the ambulance or fire protection district, after determining its budget for the year pursuant to section 67.010, RSMo, and the rate of levy needed to produce the required revenue and after making any other adjustments to the levy that may be required by any other law, shall reduce the total operating levy of the district in an amount sufficient to decrease the revenue it would have received therefrom by an amount equal to fifty percent of the previous fiscal year's sales tax receipts. Loss of revenue, due to a decrease in the assessed valuation of real property located within the ambulance or fire protection district as a result of general reassessment, and from state-assessed railroad and utility distributable property based upon the previous fiscal year's receipts shall be considered in lowering the rate of levy to comply with this section in the year of general reassessment and in each subsequent year. In the event that in the immediately preceding year the ambulance or fire protection district actually received more or less sales tax revenue than estimated, the ambulance or fire protection district board may adjust its operating levy for the current year to reflect such increase or decrease. The director of revenue shall certify the amount payable from the ambulance or fire protection district sales tax trust fund to the general revenue fund to the state treasurer.

  2. Except that, in the first year in which any sales tax is collected pursuant to section 321.552, the collector shall not reduce the tax rate as defined in section 137.073, RSMo.

  3. In a year of general reassessment, as defined by section 137.073, RSMo, or assessment maintenance as defined by section 137.115, RSMo, in which an ambulance or fire protection district in reliance upon the information then available to it relating to the total assessed valuation of such ambulance or fire protection district revises its property tax levy pursuant to section 137.073 or 137.115, RSMo, and it is subsequently determined by decisions of the state tax commission or a court pursuant to sections 138.430 to 138.433, RSMo, or due to clerical errors or corrections in the calculation or recordation of assessed valuations that the assessed valuation of such ambulance or fire protection district has been changed, and but for such change the ambulance or fire protection district would have adopted a different levy on the date of its original action, then the ambulance or fire protection district may adjust its levy to an amount to reflect such change in assessed valuation, including, if necessary, a change in the levy reduction required by this section to the amount it would have levied had the correct assessed valuation been known to it on the date of its original action, provided:

  (1) The ambulance or fire protection district first levies the maximum levy allowed without a vote of the people by article X, section 11(b) of the constitution; and

  (2) The ambulance or fire protection district first adopts the tax rate ceiling otherwise authorized by other laws of this state; and

  (3) The levy adjustment or reduction may include a one-time correction to recoup lost revenues the ambulance or fire protection district was entitled to receive during the prior year.

­­--------

(L. 2002 S.B. 1107, A.L. 2004 H.B. 795, et al.)