Missouri Press Association
Serving Missouri Newspapers Since 1867
Editor’s note: Two Missouri editors, Geoffrey Woehlk and Kyle Troutman were among the 12 recipients this year in the International Society of Weekly Newspaper Editors’ Golden Quill contest. The awards were presented July 12 at the ISWNE’s annual convention in Brookings, South Dakota. It was Geoffrey’s third ISWNE award; he also won in 2022 and 2023.
Over the past few weeks, a group of concerned residents in Worth County has been pushing the county government to restrict access to property tax records that are view able by anyone through an online payment portal.
The portal allows anyone to search by last name and view property tax records that include how much someone has been assessed for what properties, how much has been paid and how much is owed. But it’s been the personal property tax search function, which allows anyone to view any individual’s vehicle VINs for which they’ve been assessed, that has sparked the bulk of the residents’ worries.
Like those residents, we were surprised that that information was so easily accessible online, and so widely: the same system, with access to the same level of information, is utilized not just by Worth County, but in dozens of counties across the state, including in Andrew, Holt and Nodaway counties in northwest Missouri, and in larger counties like Buchanan and Boone as well.
But we disagree with the residents’ request that the county make public records harder to access.
Is it a little weird that anyone can search up our names and find the VINs for the cars we own? Sure, we agree that it is.
Unsurprisingly, that discomfort has led many of the concerned residents to worry about what a potential fraudster could do with that information.
On its own, even with the other information on the property records, the answer is: Not much.
In order to, for example, create a duplicate title for your car or register a stolen car with your VIN, a would-be criminal would need your VIN, yes, but also would need a fake notary seal and a fraudulent identity − all of which must be done well enough to evade detection. In that scenario, although we confess we haven’t tried it, the VIN seems like the least of the obstacles. We suspect, though, that the residents’ objections really aren’t about the potential for fraud.
As Julia Wideman, the spokeswoman for the concerned Worth County residents, said during a county commission meeting this month on this topic, “you don’t mess with two things…family, and a person’s pocketbook.”
Money, and how much or how little we have of it, is typically not something we like to share with others. So having property tax records easily accessible makes us a little squeamish.
And we share that natural discomfort, despite knowing that much more of our information − including information that’s much more personal − is already out there.
It’s common knowledge that information about every one of us is traded behind our backs every day (if this isn’t common knowledge to you, then brace yourself when you read this week’s story about Maryville parks).
If you own a cellphone, every move you make − both physically and virtually − is tracked, every purchase you make is logged and all of your habits are packaged together, cataloged and sold to anyone who will pay.
We all know this is happening, that any company (or foreign government) in the world can buy all of those personal habits and details of yours and then target you for sales and propaganda. And yet, because it’s all happening largely out of our view, it’s actually less discomforting than being able to search our names and find public property tax records online for free. We understand both the weirdness and truth behind that.
One of the potential alternatives proposed by the concerned residents’ group is to have the records only accessible by coming into the office to get them physically, or at least to have to request them specifically from the appropriate office − like it was before the records were online.
Together with the mis placed fears of VIN fraud, that, to us, signals that this issue is chiefly about discomfort: it’s not that the records are public, it’s just that they’re so…out there, exposed for everyone to see.
We sympathize with that point of view, but we disagree that public records should be subject to a “discomfort” test. Too often, Missourians have allowed − and even encouraged − public officials to restrict what’s considered a public record.
As journalists, it is no surprise that we believe access to public records is a bedrock of a democratic society, essential to accountability from all and to all.
But not exactly slowly, Missouri has become one of the most secretive states in the nation: virtually nowhere in the United States is it harder to access some basic public information − records that rightfully belong to you and all of us − than right here in the “Show-Me State.”
Many in the legislature continue to work to show you less and less. In 2019, the St. Louis Post Dispatch found that state legislators were receiving letters from constituents asking them to support specific legislation. Only, the constituents said they never sent the letters. For years now, members of both houses of the state legislature have tried to advance bills to exempt themselves, including constituent emails, from open records requests − the kind that can track down fraud like the fake emails uncovered by the Post-Dispatch. And still, the House has made its own rules to make certain records of its own closed and inaccessible to the people they have been elected to serve.
And just last year, the General Assembly passed a bill that redacted the names of witnesses and victims from court documents. Good luck finding another state where it’s not a matter of public record who witnessed a murder, what police officer worked the case or, even, who was murdered.
There is a difference between a right to privacy and a right to comfort. No, nobody loves the idea of a nosy neighbor looking up how much your property is worth, just like no school teacher or university football coach loves that their salaries are published into a searchable database every year. But they are public records, and, save a compelling reason to make them in accessible to the public, we all have a right to see them − without a login and without being restricted to the information that pertains to us specifically.
We believe the Worth County Commission has acted exactly how elected officials should when confronted by angry constituents: they have heard the constituents out calmly and are doing their best to find both the answers requested of them and suitable compromises. We encourage all public officials to act with the same deliberate purpose whenever possible.
Similarly, we applaud the easily accessible property tax payment systems put in place. In Worth County specifically, where Commissioner Regan Nonneman said that 40 percent of landowners live outside the county, this feature is sorely needed and long overdue. Even those who think VINs should not be included in the search results surely will recognize that the public officials who have implemented these systems truly are acting with the public’s best interests in mind. We hope all public officials will follow their lead to make public records more easily accessible.
When we think of democracy, we probably think of the country at large. Something big, abstract. But the heart and soul of democracy lives in our schools, in our city councils, and in our county courthouses. Democracy is not something dictated from the top down, but built from the bottom up − and in ways great and small, we are the stewards responsible for taking care of it to pass on to each successive generation.
Make no mistake: Each time we make public records more difficult to access, every time we say that the people do not have a right to information held by our government − barring a compelling reason − we erode part of the bedrock of our democracy.
No, we don’t believe the republic would crumble if tomorrow you needed an account number to view only your own property tax bill in Worth County. Of course not. And we to tally understand why many people would prefer that.
But how quickly should we make exceptions to our principles? And what standard should we set for those exceptions?
We think that is a worthy debate to have, especially at the local level, and we agree that reason able people can disagree about the answers. That’s democracy.
As for us, we believe discomfort should not be the standard, especially not when the very principle of public information seems to have become dangerously pliable.
And so we encourage the Worth County Commission, Worth County Collector Jessica Davidson and any officials in other counties that use the same system to keep the online property tax payment portal the same, and be proud of the service they are providing to taxpayers.
We do not believe that public records should be arbitrarily made more difficult to access. If it is a public record − and no one seems to dispute that is the case here − then it should be as accessible as possible to the public. Period.
Email Geoffrey Woehlk at gwoehlk@maryvilleforum.com.
