Following the April 8 General Municipal Election vote — with 91% in favor — the Barry County Commission passed an ordinance Monday enacting Senate Bill 190, which offers a property tax freeze for seniors 62-and-over.

Skyler Bowman, Barry County collector, said the first opportunity for seniors to take advantage of the offering will be in 2026, and the county is making the base year retroactive to 2024.

“This could also change with what’s going on in the legislature right now,” she said. “But, we believe we’ll start taking applications from April 1, 2026 to June 30, 2026. We will mail out applications like we do
statements, and we have to start in 2026 because the software will not be installed until then.”

Bowman said letters will be sent to every real estate owner in the county, as she has no way to exclude those under 62.

Real estate owners who were 62 years old as of Jan. 1, 2024, will be eligible to apply for the freeze, and the base year will be set as 2024, 2025 or 2026, depending on when the applicant turned 62 years old. In
2027, those who turned 62 by Jan. 1 of that year will be eligible to apply, with 2027 set as their base year.

The application mailing in 2026 will be a one-time mailing, and in following years, Bowman’s office will make the application available online for people to download, print and mail in, or by hard copy at her office.

Bowman said the programmer installing the software estimates a 6- to 8-week time frame, as the product has to be individualized for Barry County.

“Since the states let the counties decide how to implement this, not all the counties that have passed it are doing the same thing,” said Joyce Ennis, Barry County clerk. “So, the programmer is installing the software county-by-county. There are also only a handful of programmers in the state than can do this, which is part of why it will take so long.”

Bowman said those who receive the credit will have to apply annually, offering a simplified renewal process after the first year. The credit will be shown on the taxpayer’s statement, as well as on the taxpayer’s property tax payment receipt.

Taxpayers will not receive a check for the amount, rather, the credit on the statement showing the savings.

Bowman said Barry County is making the credit retroactive to 2024 because that is the first year SB190 was available. Other counties who passed the measure in April are only making it available for 2026 going forward, she said.

Expense-wise, the Commission estimates anywhere from $45,000 to $75,000 to implement the rdinance, which includes software installation, cost of printing applications and cost of mailing applications.

Bowman’s office also may need extra staff to handle the applications and extra time at the window applicants may need.

“We don’t know how many applications we will get,” she said. “It may be 100, or it may be 500. We don’t know who will take the time to do it or who may just forget.”

For more information about the process, people may call Bowman’s office at 417-847-2113, or email sbowman@barrycounty collector.com.