The Warren County Commission voted Nov. 5 to join other Missouri counties in challenging a recent court decision upholding the constitutionality of Senate Bill 3, passed in 2025, which paved the way for residential property tax credits in many counties, including Warren.

“The judge voted in the state’s favor, so the last eight days, nine days since that was done, multiple counties are going to try to appeal it,” Warren County Presiding Commissioner Joe Gildehaus said last week.

Following the passage of SB-3 in June 2025, in September of last year several Missouri school districts, including Warren County R-III; Ozark Fire Protection District; and two individuals, Warrenton resident Virginia Schenk and St. Louis resident Alous Kirchhofer, sued the state, arguing that the approval of SB-3 was “arbitrary, unconstitutional, and impermissible.” Several county governments, including Warren, later joined the case as plaintiffs.

Warren County was included in the list of “zero-percent counties.” This means that, following a vote in favor of the tax credit by county voters earlier this year, residential property owners who have owned their homes and not torn down and rebuilt them or made similar major alterations since 2024 are supposed to receive a tax credit limiting their property taxes to their 2024 level. 

This differs from five-percent counties, where homeowners’ tax bills would be limited to increasing no more than 5 percent annually. In April, Warren County voters approved the tax credit, which was required by SB-3 to be put to a vote at the county level in that election. Warren County officials emphasized that SB-3 authorized a tax credit, not a tax “freeze,” even though it has been widely described as a tax freeze.

On Oct. 28, Cole County Circuit Court Judge Christopher Limbaugh issued an order and judgment upholding SB-3 and rejecting the constitutional challenges to the law.

Missouri Attorney General Catherine Hannaway’s office issued a statement following the decision, calling it a major victory. “A judge ruled entirely in favor of the State, rejecting every constitutional challenge brought by the plaintiffs and preserving key protections for Missouri homeowners against excessive and sudden property tax increases,” the statement said.

Following the Nov. 5 Warren County Commission vote, however, on Monday, Nov. 9, plaintiffs including Warren County filed notices of appeal to the Missouri Supreme Court.

Although the county government is appealing the Oct. 28 decision, it is also still trying to figure out how to implement the tax credit in case their appeal is rejected. They are having limited success, however.

“You can’t really explain anything to people, to taxpayers yet, because there’s not any information to give them. I mean, all this would do is confuse them even more. I mean, look how confused we are, and we should be somewhat educated on it,” said Gildehaus.

Gildehaus and others at the meeting said the state legislature provided no guidance on how to implement SB-3.

“The legislature voted on something,” he said. “They have never been a collector. They have never been an assessor. They have not been in county government.”

Different counties are taking different approaches to try to implement the law. “It’s all over the board,” he said.

Calling SB-3 “a debacle,” Gildehaus said Warren County officials hope to compare notes with other counties and learn more about how they’re handling the residential property tax credit at the upcoming Missouri Association of Counties annual conference Nov. 21-24 in Osage Beach.

“This is going to be a topic of conversation up there,” Gildehaus said.