State Auditor: Montgomery County overtaxed residents by $89,000 in 2022

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (KMIZ)

A report conducted by the Missouri Auditor’s office indicated residents in Montgomery County were overtaxed by $89,000, according to a press release.

The overtax occurred when the County Clerk reported incorrect assessed valuation totals to the State Auditor's Office, the release states. State Auditor Scott Fitzpatrick stated the county made improvements from a 2016 audit, in which it received a “poor” rating.

"It's good to see county officials have made significant improvements since the 2016 audit that found the county was inappropriately spending revenue generated by a voter-approved sales tax. It's clear the county took the findings from the previous audit seriously and enacted policies to ensure most of them don't happen again," Fitzpatrick said in the release. "However, the mistake made by the county in 2022 that resulted in residents being overtaxed by $89,000 is something that should not happen. While this isn't an enormous number spread out across the entire county, even one dollar of overtaxation is too much for taxpayers who deserve to keep those funds in their own pockets."

According to the release, other findings in the report include mid-term salary increases for the sheriff that are in violation of constitutional provisions (the raise totaled $20,226), a failure by the County Clerk to prepare the back tax, land and personal tax, and railroad and utility tax aggregate abstracts for 2018-22