Are Non-Resident Property Owners Disenfranchised?

Voting procedure set forth in the State law is unnecessarily complicated and burdensome, and which could occur without giving any or proper notice, and serves to disenfranchise certain voters.

Can Non-Property Owners Vote?

This one is clear in terms of what the State law says – resident renters not only get to vote, but they get two seats on the seven-person Board of Commissioners, which oversees the Special Business District.  People who don’t have to pay the tax shouldn’t get to vote on imposing it.  There would also be a disproportionate representation because an LLC with four owners would only get one vote, whereas there could be multiple renters in each property who would each get to vote.

Do Owners of Multiple Properties Get to Vote Multiple Times?

State law says that each “qualified voter” gets one vote.  (71-800 RSMo) Apparently, the City is taking the position that this means an owner of multiple properties only gets one vote.  The interpretation is quite unreasonable, given that an owner of multiple properties would have to pay the tax in multiples.  Another inconsistency here is that someone who owns multiple properties with separate LLCs (or other entities) would get one vote per LLC, whereas a property owner who owns multiple properties inside of one LLC would only get one vote.  Further, it would appear, based on the language, that if a property were owned jointly by two individuals, each would get a vote, while a property owned by a single individual would get one vote.  Similarly, because “residents” in the District (i.e., renters) also get to vote, one rental property with 10 tenants would get at least 11 votes (10 tenants + at least one owner), while a single-owner-occupied home would only get one vote.  All of this adds up to a very convoluted set of circumstances that works to the detriment of the property owners who have to pay the tax and/or disproportionately affects different property owners according to how the property is owned.