Columbia Board of Education approves 16-cent tax rate decrease

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

The Columbia Board of Education approved Thursday a decrease in property tax rate for Columbia Public Schools.

For the 2025-26 school year, the tax rate is dropping by nearly 16 cent, meaning property owners will pay CPS $5.55 for every $1,000 of assessed value in property taxes for the year. However, due to the 8% increase in property assessment valuations, the district could collect $3.5 million more than last year through property taxes.

According to Chief Financial Officer Heather McArthur, due to the 8% assessed valuation growth, CPS will have to roll back its tax rate to account for the difference. The assessed valuation calculation showed that the 8% growth is due to the increase of residential value.

In Thursday's hearing, there where questions about how the senior property tax freeze may effect the CPS property tax rates in the future. There's the possibility that the effects from the senior tax freeze will change year to year depending how many seniors opt in annually and how much people who don't qualify or opt in have to pay in property taxes.

"We know that it's going to limit the amount that we're going to be able to collect on the property," said McArthur. "We have our assessed valuation, but we're not going to be able to collect all of that revenue, because the way it's going to show up to individual taxpayers."

McArthur said the seniors will be paying decreased amounts, so CPS will not be able to collect the full amount of the assessed evaluation. CPS will be able to gather more concrete data in the fall about the potential impacts of the senior property tax freeze.

The CPS financial committee will be discussing its tax rate number in a meeting at 5:30 p.m. Thursday.

Final tax rate levies must be decided before September 1.