Critic of tax office says Jackson County is betting most property owners hit with inflated bills are too intimidated to appeal
State lawmakers could be Jackson County business owners’ last hope, said Ian Davis, testifying Wednesday in the Missouri state capitol about spiking property tax assessments that have seen entrepreneurs hit with increases of up to 2,000 percent with little recourse and a murky appeal process.
“This specific tax fight is not just bad policy. It’s an economic eviction notice of small business owners and property owners in Jackson County,” Davis, owner of Blip Coffee Roasters, told members of the Missouri House of Representatives Special Interim Committee on Property Tax Reform.
“If this continues, it will not just force closures, but force relocations to states that value and protect their local businesses,” he added, in a video that spread widely across social media platforms Thursday.
In business for 11 years in the West Bottoms, Davis has owned his business’ property since mid-2020, he told Startland News. His building at 1301 Woodswether Rd. — sitting amid a resurgence of development in the historic area — is among those facing a ticking clock after receiving its bill.
“I’m not opposed to paying my fair share of taxes,” he told legislators. “But a 626 percent property tax increase is not a bill — it’s a death sentence for small businesses.”
Payments are due in December.
“I don’t have investors,” Davis told Startland News. “I can’t make enough money to pay this (in five months).”
Dontavious Young, Equal Minded Cafe; photo by Taylor Wilmore, Startland News
Punished for prosperity?
In 2011, retired educator Vicky Smith bought two buildings on Troost Avenue for $39,000 plus back taxes, she said.
Her goal was simple and noble: Preserve a 30-year-old daycare and help build a hub of Black-led social enterprise and entrepreneurship.
Vicky Smith, owner of Ubuntu Village, with her sons; photo courtesy of Dontavious Young
That dream became Ubuntu Village — home to Equal Minded Café and event space — that serves as an incubator for community programs like Big Ideas Foundation, a nonprofit focused on youth entrepreneurship.
Then came the 2025 tax assessment.
“Last year the prior valuation was $80,000,” Smith said. “And this year it’s $890,530.”
The response from the county? Silence.
“I applied for the Sunshine Law thing,” she said of the open records process used by Jackson County government. “And I still don’t have a clear understanding of that.”
Her grandson, 28-year-old Dontavious Young, now runs the day-to-day operations at Ubuntu Village and is the force behind the cafe and foundation.
Like Davis, Smith fears the new tax burden — about $3,000 a month — isn’t just unsustainable. It’s fatal.
“These things we are doing, they have meant good things for the city,” she said, referencing her work within the neighborhood. “I mean, these tax changes … this would take us out. We can’t keep up with $3,000 a month for taxes.”
Ubuntu Village only recently began to approach financial stability after years of vacancy and operating at a loss, Young said. The owners do not take an income from the property, he added, noting they’re driven by a love of the neighborhood and believe in its future.
“This isn’t just about us. This is happening to family-owned properties all over the city — especially where one business has finally started to succeed,” said Young. “This isn’t taxation, it’s extraction. And it’s hitting small, local, and/or Black-led buildings hardest. The assessment department is breaking the law, violating due process, and hiding behind broken systems to do it.”
The story echoes up and down Troost — a corridor long ignored by city services and still haunted by the legacy of redlining — where Smith said Ubuntu and its neighbors have brought stability to a troubled area.
“We’re making the city better. Why are we being punished for that?”
A ‘mafia-like’ approach
The rise in property tax assessments with sudden jumps isn’t just bad governance, said Preston Smith, it’s systemic and deliberate.
Preston Smith
A tax policy watchdog and candidate for Jackson County Assessor — who is not related to the Ubuntu Village owner — Smith said he’s observed such assessment tactics year after year, even after the county lost in court over the practices in a high-profile case.
“The secret that the county doesn’t want people to know is they’re betting that two thirds of the people will not appeal,” Smith said, calling it a “mafia-like” approach to taxation.
Property owners who complain or seek appeals through the Board of Equalization often are faced with intimidation tactics, he said, like a county employee telling them the appeal could result in their assessment being doubled; it’s best to just give up.
“They scare people,” Smith said. “They tell the business owners, ‘You’ve got to go out and spend $1,800 for a commercial appraisal. You’ve got to hire a tax assessor representative to help you. This is going to cost you so much money. You should just go ahead and pay the taxes and quit trying to fight it.’”
“But if you bought (a property) in an open sale on the open market in an arms-length agreement, that’s supposed to be a fair market value,” he continued. “And based on our state laws, that should be the valuation. This hits up against the tax rules.”
Jackson County administration initially responded to Startland News’ request for comment but would not explain its methodologies, overarching tax strategy or other related questions.
Startland News sought answers to the following questions:
- What is the county doing to help commercial property owners stay in place and in operation?
- What precedent in Missouri or beyond there is for such large jumps in assessed value?
- How did the county communicate in advance news of impending extraordinary tax increases to property owners beyond routine annual mailings?
The Jackson County Executive Office public information officer replied seeking specific parcel numbers or addresses and did not reply when asked higher level questions.
Parked and risking foreclosure
Andy Rieger is among the property owners who — faced with a skyrocketing tax bill — was able to use the appeals process to settle a dispute over his assessment for the J. Rieger & Co. main parcel (the business’ primary building and a warehouse) in the East Bottoms.
Andy Rieger, J. Rieger & Co.
But the fight didn’t end there.
Next the distiller was forced to take on the county’s assessment of the nearby parking lot, which the county already had admitted was appraised too high the year before, he said. The sticking point: the assessor’s office staff told him they aren’t allowed to adjust down the prior year’s value, Rieger said.
“We have a gravel lot and a paved lot. (County staff) recognized they were probably misaligned, but because they thought the prices should go down, they couldn’t do anything,” he said.
Rieger even has in hand a third party appraisal proving that even the prior-year assessment is too high, he said.
“I said to them, ‘The burden of proof is now on you,’ and they’re like, ‘Yeah, we’re only allowed to go back to even,’” he said, meaning the prior year value, which, Rieger contends, was already too high.
Rieger said he was then told that if the new 2024 value he received this year is adjusted back to the 2023 value, that 2023 — again, itself too high — is locked in and cannot be appealed.
Furthermore, if Rieger took his valuations to the county’s Board of Equalization — the county body convened to hear on county property owners’ challenges of tax valuations — the process could be delayed until next summer when the board next has time to hear the case.
In the interim, he could risk foreclosure.
“So here’s this property that’s worth $10,000,” Rieger said. “Now you’re telling me that I’m going to have to pay $15,000 to $20,000 in the interim in property taxes when I should be paying $2,000?”
“It makes no sense that I have to pay seven, eight years worth of property taxes just so that my property doesn’t go into foreclosure on a valuation they know is fraudulent,” he continued.
Pointing fingers
In Jackson County, responsibility for tax assessments ultimately rests with two individuals.
“Why is it that we allow a county executive who’s being recalled and an appraiser who answers to nobody but an under-recall county executive to destroy the fabric of Jackson County?” Rieger asked pointedly.
That under-recall executive is Frank White, who this summer vetoed his own recall only to see that veto overturned by the county legislature.
The court case referenced by Smith — the State of Missouri ex rel., City of Independence, Missouri, and City of Blue Springs, Missouri, v. Jackson County, Missouri, et al. — establishes that the director of the Jackson County Assessment Department is appointed by the county executive, in this case White, who, per the court’s findings, “is ultimately responsible for the performance of the Assessment Department … and the Director of Assessment.”
That same court finding states that “the Jackson County Assessment Department failed the citizens of Jackson County in conducting the 2023 biennial assessment due to producing inaccurate property assessments, … also failed to timely and adequately notify property owners of certain statutory rights and “the Assessment Department, and the Jackson County Board of Equalization (“BOE”), both failed to process appeals in a timely manner.”
Of note, given property owners’ stated concerns that the Board of Equalization might not hear a complaint until a foreclosure may come down, that court also found that White “appoints certain members of the BOE.”
Business owners also faulted a software vendor — whose reach is believed to extend from parcel assessments potentially to the backend of the county’s property search tool — for errors in the appraisal process. Jackson County, however, would not confirm the identity of the company currently managing the platform and assessment portal website for Jackson County, and did not respond to questions about methodologies used.
“There’s no transparency; there’s no accountability; and there’s no guardrail on how much or how often commercial property taxes can be raised here in Jackson County,” Blip Roasters’ Davis told state legislators this week.
“County legislators point fingers at the county executive and tax assessor,” he continued. “And while they are not without blame, this is a legislative failure by every Jackson County legislator past and present.”
Ian Davis, Blip Roasters; courtesy photo
Restore trust before businesses are lost
Watchdog Smith agrees with Davis that the State Tax Commission is the only real source of any possible “salvation” given how much unchecked control the county has over its taxing powers, he said.
The state body could issue sanctions or demand oversight, noted Smith, who served as an expert witness in the previous court case and expressed willingness to testify again.
Davis’ remarks this week similarly encouraged swift actions on behalf of entrepreneurs already struggling with other “crushing costs and increases” — from rising energy and commercial insurance rates to inflation-ravaged goods and tariff impacts.
“Many will have no choice but to sell their properties. Many business owners will downsize or close entirely,” Davis told legislators on the state commission. “I urge you to enact real limits on commercial property tax increases, require transparency in assessments, and restore trust before local businesses are lost.”
Haines Eason is the owner of startup content marketing agency Freelance Kansas. Previously he worked as a managing editor for a corporate content marketing team and as a communications professional at KU. His work has appeared in publications like The Guardian, Eater and KANSAS! Magazine among others. Learn about him and Freelance Kansas on LinkedIn.
