Politics & Government

Assessor Candidate Zimmerman Says He'd Seek to Rapidly Respond to Taxpayers

Eureka and Wildwood voters will weigh two candidates for the office in April.

Voters in St. Louis County will elect an assessor for the first time on the April 5 ballot.

The choice comes down to a third-term state representative, Jake Zimmerman, and a real estate executive with 37 years experience, L.K. “Chip” Wood.

In this article, Eureka-Wildwood Patch profiles Zimmerman. A profile of Wood was published in a separate article.

Find out what's happening in Eureka-Wildwoodwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Jake Zimmerman

Democratic nominee Jake Zimmerman, 36, is a state representative from Olivette, who was elected in 2006 and is serving his third term.  He served as deputy chief legal counsel to former Gov. Bob Holden, assistant attorney general under Jay Nixon and as a litigator for the Thompson Coburn law firm. He has a Harvard law degree.

Find out what's happening in Eureka-Wildwoodwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Zimmerman said the new assessor will face an urgent need to bring, accountability, fairness and responsiveness to the office.

“A lot of this comes down to treating people with basic respect, by treating them the way you would want to be treated,” he said.

Zimmerman said he wants no bureaucratic runaround when people call the assessor’s office. He would have positions whose main responsibility would be rapid taxpayer response.

“They are entitled to a quick call back from somebody who is on their side, willing to see the world from their perspective,” Zimmerman said.

He said a person who owns a $50,000 home has to feel they are being treated as fairly as the owner of a $500,000 home.

Zimmerman said he heard from people in his district who appealed their tax bill to the Board of Equalization and won, only to have their assessment raised 40 percent two years later.

“I would classify that as stupid government,” he said.

“They need to know that they’re not going to a kangaroo court, that they will get a fair review,” Zimmerman said. “You don’t make people pay for fighting the system.”

Zimmerman said he wants to ensure seniors aren’t taxed out of their homes.

Last year, he proposed a bill based on an Oregon law that would not allow government to collect real estate taxes to the point where a person cannot remain in their home.

“Instead, you treat it as a lien on the title, so you wait until the house is sold and there is income coming in to pay the taxes,” Zimmerman said. “That way, you don’t treat anyone differently, but you don’t tax anybody out of their home, either.”

Zimmerman said that as assessor, he would lobby for a similar law.

The assessor is in charge of the St. Louis County Assessment Division, which discovers, identifies, classifies and assesses all real and personal property in St. Louis County.

Every two years, the assessor’s office is required by state law to re-assess values on about 389,000 parcels of real estate in St. Louis County to market value. Property owners can appeal the assessments.

Residential property is assessed at 19 percent of market value. The assessed value is applied to tax rates set by local taxing entities, such as school, fire protection, the county library and other districts.


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

More from Eureka-Wildwood