HERMANN – Gasconade County voters in November will have a chance to approve a property tax-break measure in case a broader tax-relief law adopted locally in April is ruled unconstitutional.

The Cole County Circuit Court today (July 29) is scheduled to hear arguments involving the law known as Senate Bill 3, which grants all homeowners a property tax break on their primary place of residence. SB 3, which was approved by the Missouri General Assembly this year after being tacked on to a larger bill aimed at giving tax breaks to the Kansas City Chiefs as a way to keep the football team in state, is being challenged by many counties as being unconstitutional. Opponents reason that it treats counties differently regarding the allowable growth in property value assessments, the basis for local property tax revenue.

When the judge hearing SB 3 will issue a ruling isn’t known. If the law is upheld, the ruling could be appealed, taking even longer for a final decision to be made.

Meanwhile, the Gasconade County Commission on July 23 agreed to place the question of SB 190 on the county’s Nov. 3 general elections ballot. A formal order is expected to be adopted by the commission later this month.

This law, adopted by the Missouri General Assembly two years ago, calls for a property tax break for homeowners 62 and older. Some counties, primarily those in urban areas, adopted SB 190 shortly after it was signed into law. At least some of those counties experienced big expenses in terms of the computer software and the staffing needed to put the program in place. Others, such as Gasconade County, were advised to wait to implement the law until more was known about its effects on counties and local-government entities such as school districts, hospitals and other property-tax dependent government entities.

Cheryl Bohl spearheaded the petition drive to collect about 600 signatures, which she presented Thursday morning to the commission, calling for a vote in November. To qualify for the ballot, Bohl needed to collect just under 400 valid signatures.

Bohl told the commission that she spoke with a representative of the Missouri State Tax Commission about what effect SB 3 might have on SB 190 — if SB 3 is upheld — and was given no firm opinion. That’s why it’s important that SB 190 be approved, as a fall-back measure to ensure a tax break for older homeowners.

Assessor Julia Baker applauded Bohl’s efforts at collecting the signatures in such a short amount of time.

“I think we got a pretty wide spectrum” of people to sign the petition, Bohl said.

Presiding Commissioner Tim Schulte, R-Hermann, made the motion to add the question on the ballot if the qualifying number of signatures is verified by the County Clerk’s Office. That work ins’t likely to begin until after all the aspects of next Tuesday’s primary election has been settled. Local-government entities have until Aug. 25 to request topics to be on the November ballot.

In other matters at the July 23 commission session, Treasurer Mike Feagan reported that the county’s Motor Fuel Tax reimbursement check from the Missouri Department of Revenue was one of the larger ones received this year. Indeed, at $83,964, the July check is the second-largest of the year behind the $86,324 received in May

So far this year, the Motor Fuel Tax has generated $561,543 for Gasconade County. This year’s amount through the first seven months is running almost $38,000 ahead of the amount received during the same period last year. In 2025, the tax produced a total of $937,801 for the county government, which allocates the money to the Road Department.