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ST. LOUIS — New lawsuits against ӣ����Ƶ and ӣ����Ƶ County could pave the way for seniors to get bigger breaks in property tax freeze programs across the state, experts say.

Two class action lawsuits filed this week claim the city’s and county’s freezes are illegal because they only apply to a portion of the tax bills for eligible senior homeowners. That could result in much less tax relief than expected, ӣ����Ƶ attorney Pat Hagerty said in an interview Thursday.

“It could be a shock to people,” Hagerty said.

The county’s freeze doesn’t apply to the portion of the tax bill that pays down government debts, according to Hagerty filed Tuesday on behalf of Maureen Radice, of unincorporated South County.

And the city’s program only applies to the city’s portion of the tax bill — not the portions collected for other government bodies, like schools or sewer districts — Hagerty said in the , filed Wednesday on behalf of ӣ����Ƶ resident Donna Nowak.

The suits ask judges to order the city and county to apply the freezes across the board, for all parts of the tax bill, for all eligible applicants within their borders.

County Executive Sam Page said on Wednesday he believes the county lawsuit misinterprets the state law.

“Folks can say whatever they want,” Page said at a news conference. “I can tell you that this program is designed precisely by the state law, and the state law doesn’t freeze every bit of the property tax.”

A spokesperson for Mayor Cara Spencer’s office declined to comment.

‘Let’s see what the law is’

Critics and supporters of the tax freeze agree the lawsuits could affect counties across the state.

A judge’s order could establish a legal precedent for residents across Missouri who disagree with their county’s interpretation of the law, said Dennis Ganahl, co-founder of MO Tax Relief Now, a group that has lobbied for senior tax freezes statewide.

Tax bills are made up of several different items. School, fire and ambulance districts each set their own tax rate, as do municipalities, and they’re all included on the county tax bill.

In addition, government bodies can have separate taxes to pay down debt for building things like new fire stations, for example.

Advocates for the measure believe the senior tax freeze should apply to all of that.

But Ganahl said over half of the roughly 60 counties his group worked with, including St. Charles and Jackson counties, excluded debt service from the tax freeze.

Governments saw it as a way to protect revenue for school districts and other agencies that rely on tax dollars, Ganahl said.

But the legislature’s intent was to freeze the entire bill, not just part of it, he said. He hopes the lawsuits could be replicated in other counties.

“Let’s figure it out and see what the law is and what the law isn’t,” Ganahl said.

Steve Hobbs, executive director of the Missouri Association of Counties, agrees the suits could have statewide implications.

But Hobbs says the Missouri Constitution, under a 1980 tax limitation measure called the , allows government agencies to exclude debt service from the senior tax freeze.

Hobbs also believes the state law enabling the local tax freezes is fundamentally flawed and could eventually be tossed in a separate lawsuit. The program illegally favors a special subset of taxpayers — seniors — in violation of equitable taxing laws, Hobbs said.

Such a lawsuit will likely come after a government body, such as a school district, can demonstrate harm from the law.

“They haven’t seen the decease in revenue yet,” Hobbs said. “But that’s coming.”

ӣ����Ƶ County’s application period for the tax freeze ended on Monday. More than 82,000 people applied. Approvals will start going out this week and will continue through Oct. 1. The county will contact anyone whose application was incomplete.

ӣ����Ƶ to July 31 because of the tornado that struck the city in May.