This basically means that if you are not paid up on your taxes by the last day you can file to run for office, you cannot be a candidate. This is further referenced in
115.342 of the Missouri Revised Statutes (
thanks for the tip Suzyjax).
On the surface this looks pretty clear cut. Either you were a resident in August 2005 and thus can run for office or you were not. If you were a resident at that time you should have paid personal property taxes on your vehicle(s) and not received a waiver. However, it gets more complicated than that.
First, I learned that you are only liable for taxes on real or personal property if you owned it on January 1st of that tax year according to
137.075 of the
Missouri revised statutes. So, unless Councilperson Schneider was a resident of Missouri and the owner of record on these vehicles on January 1st 2005 he would not have been liable for that year. Since the focus here is the August 2005 date and Councilman Schneider apparently moved into his home on Chaucer around February / March 2005, it looks like the 2005 tax year is out.
When it comes to the residency issue, that hasn't been clear cut in Missouri since 1972. Back then, Kit Bond filed for a primary run for Governor and his candidacy was challenged based on the belief that he had not been a resident of Missouri for the 10 years leading up to the election as required. The Court considered the fact that he had been out of state to attend college, to clerk for a judge, to work for a law firm and possibly even filed as a resident in Atlanta Georgia. However, since he had maintained ties with his home town, his church, civic groups, returned most holidays and consistently expressed his desire to return home once he had legal experience, the Supreme Court of Missouri ultimately ruled in
King v. Walsh, 484 S.W.2d, 641 (Mo. banc 1972) that Kit Bond did meet the residency requirements and could run even though he had spent the majority of about 5 of those 10 years prior to the election living and working out of state.
I didn't find a direct link to this case (
if anyone finds one please pass it along and I will add it to this article) however I did find an
Attorney General's Opinion written by William L. Webster in 1985 on a similar issue. This opinion specifically references
King v. Walsh.
There is also a local connection to this issue. Around 1985 a Candidate for Alderman in Overland had his residency challenged. As I understand it, the City Clerk at the time went to the address in Clayton that this candidate had changed his driver's license (but not his voter registration) to and that candidate answered the door in a robe or towel. There was a deposition from the candidate's parents (whose home he claimed to live in) where they described the room their son claimed to live in as full of shelves they used for storing canned goods. There was more but you get the idea. Even with this significant evidence the judge ruled in favor of the challenged candidate. The Judge's decision has been characterized locally by the phrase "
home is where the heart is" and likely referenced
King v. Walsh as well (
if anyone finds an article or a direct link to this case / decision please pass the info along so I can add it to this article).
Ultimately, in the State of Missouri, Residency is not a clear cut issue.
Now on the surface it would seem that if you were a resident you would be liable for personal property taxes on your vehicle(s). However, that would depend on if you were the owner of record for the vehicle(s) in question.
We were able to contact Councilperson Schneider today. Mr. Schneider stated that his company, Lakewood Party Supplies, remained in operation in Minnesota because "it takes time to shut down a business" and the lease on the building the company was operating from did not end until July of 2006. Mr. Schneider further stated that the vehicles were owned by the company until that time when he transferred ownership of the vehicles to himself. Assuming this is accurate (
and we've seen nothing to the contrary at this time) it is hard to see how you could be held liable for Missouri Personal Property Taxes on a vehicle or vehicles that were owned by a Minnesota company at the time.
I talked at length with Councilperson Schneider on this issue. He said "I feel I did everything honestly and correctly to the best of my ability". Mr. Schneider seemed a bit frustrated which was understandable considering this came up during his vacation, but despite this frustration he was very pleasant. We ended the conversation with Mr. Schneider saying, "I just want a clean, professional election".
Councilperson Mary Beth Conlon, who filed this suit, told us "This is not personal, it is just about the rules and the integrity of the Mayor's office". Though she declined to comment on the specifics of the case, she did say "The citizens of Overland Mandated six weeks ago that they want good government and to have the city follow the rules".
Councilperson Keller, the only one of the candidates not involved in this issue, would seem to like to keep it that way. She said "This is between Mary Beth Conlon and Mike Schneider and I'm not going to get involved in it". Mrs. Keller was very pleasant saying that she has no issues with either of the candidates involved. "I hope the judge makes a fair and proper ruling" said Keller while expressing concern as to whether or not this issue could be resolved before the election.
It seems this case is far from as clear cut as it originally seemed. Ultimately it looks like it will come down to the property tax issue and who was the owner of record of the vehicles in question as well as what evidence the claim that Councilperson Schneider told the county department of revenue he had not become a resident before February 2006 is based on.
We don't expect more to develop on this story until the case is heard in court. If at all possible we will attend that hearing and report on it to our readers.
The comments are open and I'm sure there are those who will disagree with a number of things in this article so, whether you agree, disagree or just have something to add click the comments link below and add your thoughts.
