Clay County adopts ordinance clarifying senior property tax credit to use lowest tax liability and include bonded debt

The Clay County Commission unanimously approved 2026 Ordinance 11 Wednesday, adding bonded debt obligations to the county's senior real estate tax credit and directing staff to apply the lowest applicable tax liability among 2024, 2025 or 2026 for the 2026 tax year.

The amendment to Ordinance 2025-27 (Section 38.06) was explained by Administrative Services Officer Deanna Jacobs, who told commissioners the change is intended to ensure seniors receive the lower of multiple potential tax liabilities once debt levies are included in the program. "That sounds really confusing, so we've got some clarification for you," Jacobs said, then walked the board through examples showing how a fire district debt levy and a school debt levy could differ between years and why using the lowest liability avoids unintended increases.

Commissioners said they supported the clarification but pressed staff on implementation. Commissioner Lawson asked whether staff was "confident" that bills would be sent and delivered on time this year, referencing the county's billing disruptions last year; Jacobs said county staff will begin testing with the vendor in July and will pursue parallel "bells and suspenders" workarounds, including a manual fallback and evaluation of alternative technology vendors. "We're trying to do the best we can regarding what we've got," the county administrator said.

Several commissioners referenced a recent work session with the county's tax-billing software vendor and requested routine updates. Commissioner Wagner said the commission did not want a repeat of last year's public difficulties: "I want to make sure that staff is not going to let this fall apart like it did last year."

The ordinance passed on a roll-call vote of 6-0. Commissioners discussed next steps that include vendor testing in July and monthly updates to the board; staff said they would provide testing results to the commission as they become available.

Implementation notes: the ordinance text clarifies that taxpayers enrolled in the senior real estate tax relief program as of March 31, 2025, will be eligible to receive the lowest applicable tax liability among 2024, 2025, or 2026 for the 2026 tax year. Deanna Jacobs used actual levy examples from a Smithville-area bill to illustrate how 2024 or 2025 might be the lower amount in different levy lines.

What happens next: Staff will coordinate testing with the vendor in July, run parallel manual checks, and return to the commission with progress updates. The ordinance instructs county administration to apply the clarified calculation for tax-year 2026 assessments.

Votes at a glance: Ordinance 2026-11 — Passed 6-0.