Missouri Airport Granted Lower Tax Assessment on Runways, Paving

An airport’s runways and paving are improvements, not structures, and therefore eligible for lower property tax assessments, a Missouri tribunal ruled Monday.

Creve Coeur Airport Improvement Corp. privately owns and operates a reliever airport, a federal classification for small airports relieving congestion in major travel areas. Missouri law classifies “any land and improvements, exclusive of structures, on privately owned airports that qualify as reliever airports” as agricultural real property eligible for a lower tax rate.

The airport challenged the St. Louis County, Mo., assessor’s determination that its runways and concrete and asphalt paving were structures excluded under the statute, and ...