A proposed constitutional amendment aimed at preventing the approximately 13,000 Missouri veterans who are 100-percent disabled from paying real property taxes is backed by a St. Charles County veteran who served in Iraq and Afghanistan.
State Rep. Dave Griffith, R-Jefferson City, speaks on the Missouri House floor in Jefferson City on February 11, 2020 (file photo courtesy of Tim Bommel at House Communications)
O’Fallon resident Charles Frederickson served six tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. He traveled to Jefferson City on Wednesday afternoon to testify for legislation sponsored by State Rep. Dave Griffith, R-Jefferson City. Mr. Frederickson has a total service-connected disability, and testifies he cannot find a job and made only $400 last year.
“If my (property) taxes can double in just four years, or I’m sorry ten years, you can imagine my income is not doubling in ten years,” Frederickson testifies.
Frederickson also has a daughter, who’s been battling a brain tumor. He testified for House Veterans Committee Chairman Griffith’s proposed constitutional amendment, which would exempt from taxation all real property used as a homestead for any veteran with a total service-connected disability.
Representative Griffith also testified before the House Ways and Means Committee, telling Chairman Rep. Wayne Wallingford, R-Cape Girardeau, that there are 13,153 Missouri veterans who have a total service-connected disability. Griffith praises Frederickson and Missouri’s other disabled veterans.
“These men and women that are 100 percent disabled, they got that way for a reason,” Griffith testifies. “We need to honor them, we need to show them the appreciation that we have for the sacrifice they made and the disability they live with everyday.”
Griffith has filed House Joint Resolution 32, which is three pages. If Missouri lawmakers approve Griffith’s measure, it would go to the statewide ballot in 2022.
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