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County extends 2026 senior tax-relief enrollment to July 6 after portal outage
Summary
St. Charles County Council unanimously passed an emergency ordinance June 29 extending the 2026 senior property tax-relief enrollment deadline to July 6 after the county's online application portal was down for several days; county officials said in‑person services remained available and a separate bill was introduced to remove annual renewals.
St. Charles County Council voted unanimously June 29 to extend the filing deadline for the 2026 senior citizen real estate property tax relief program to July 6, citing a multi-day outage of the county’s online application portal.
The substitute emergency ordinance (emergency bill 5497) sets the new, fixed deadline after county information-technology staff and the software vendor determined a software patch loaded June 16 caused an outage beginning the Saturday before the deadline and lasting until Wednesday afternoon. Michelle McBride, speaking in her capacity as county collector, told the council the portal was unavailable for multiple days but that in-person service centers and paper/drop-box application routes remained open.
"Because our county deadline is June 30th and our county ordinance provides for the online being available, I thought it was only fair to ask for an extension," McBride said during the council discussion, explaining the extension would let residents who prefer the online option complete their enrollment.
Why it matters: the program grants property-tax relief to qualifying seniors; county staff said most applicants are renewals of existing enrollments and that eliminating unnecessary technical hurdles is a priority for older residents who rely on the benefit.
Council members pressed the collector for technical details and outreach plans. McBride said the county’s IT team traced the problem to a buggy release in the underlying EZRI software the county uses to run the application and that there was no data breach. The collector said the communications office would post updates on the online application page and push social-media and broadcast notices about the extension.
The council amendment replacing the variable, day-count extension language with the explicit July 6 deadline was offered, seconded and adopted before the roll-call vote. The substitute emergency ordinance passed with all voting council members recorded as "yes": Councilman Swanson, Councilman Brazzle, Councilman Hammond, Councilman Elum, Councilman Hollander, Councilwoman York and Councilman Baker.
The extension is temporary relief for 2026 filing only. Separately, the council introduced bill 5501 on June 29, which would remove the program’s annual renewal requirement. Michelle McBride and other supporters argued that, with weekly assessor updates, death-record interfaces and the county’s ability to audit, the renewal requirement is an administrative burden on seniors and staff. McBride said the bulk of applications are renewals and that about 1,500 applications this year were new enrollments.
What’s next: The emergency ordinance takes effect immediately for the 2026 filing period; bill 5501—eliminating annual renewals—was introduced for later consideration and will require further hearings and a vote before becoming law.
