Missouri House Approves Representative Day’s Legislation Aimed

at Providing Tax Relief to Missouri’s Struggling Timber Industry

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Rep. Day debating HB 1207 on the House Floor

 

Jefferson City – The Missouri House gave overwhelming approval this week to legislation sponsored by Representative David Day, (R-Dixon), which would provide property tax relief to Missouri’s struggling timber industry. The legislation, House Bill 1207, passed the House by a vote of 139-16.

Rep. Day’s bill would classify sawmills and planing mills as agricultural property for the purpose of property tax assessments.  The simple change could mean substantial savings for mill owners as agricultural property is assessed at only 12 percent of its market value.  Currently, mills are classified as commercial property that is assessed at 32 percent of market value.

“Sawmills represent some of the largest and at times, the only employers in many of our most rural areas and it’s vital that we help them stay afloat during these tough economic times. Making this change will provide a significant reduction in expenses and help many of these family-owned businesses weather the economic downturn. Also, it’s simply the right thing to do as our timber industry is part of the agriculture industry and sawmills and planning mills should have been classified as agricultural property from the beginning,” said Rep. Day. 

             Day went on to say “The timber industry contributes about 4 billion dollars to our economy and is an industry that we must keep strong in our state.  I feel the strong bipartisan support of this legislation tells me this is an issue everyone can get behind as we work to provide some much-needed tax relief to our timber industry.”

            HB 1207 has now been reported to the Missouri Senate where Rep. Day has requested a hearing in the Agriculture Committee.