Bridgeton / Missouri / United States
City and Village Tax Office was founded in 1937 by Alfon Larson. Prior to that, Alfon worked as an auditor specializing in municipal work for Shrewsbury and Richmond Heights, as well as digging up additional sources of revenue. His work was enough at the time to lift Richmond Heights out of debt.In 1937, Olivette, Rock Hill and Shrewsbury decided that their dollar-a-year elected collector would be better served by appointing a paid deputy-collector. Alfon contracted with them to provide that service. As the county began to explode with growth and new municipalities were added, so did City and Village Tax Office. By 1950, 40 municipalities were using our services.Alfon passed away in 1951 and the business was passed to his son, Roger G. Larson. The business continued to grow to 59 municipalities, a large portion of the county. He specialized in issuing business licenses, audits, ordinances, and tax sales. Anything that had to do with cities, he could handle it. Hes credited with the idea of city stickers as a way of collecting personal property taxes. As St. Louis County got its billing system up and running ( using bills designed by Roger ), it started contracting with the municipalities to make their collections for them. The rate was cheaper than City and Village could manage. As a result, City and Village began losing accounts to the county. It was about this same time that, as a favor to a friend, Roger started collecting subdivision assessments.Years passed and the business grew, thanks to subdivision assessments. When Roger passed away, the business was passed to his son, Nick Larson. Here we are today - a third generation, 70 year old part of St. Louis County history. We still collect licenses, Real Property, Personal Property, and Special Tax bills for 10 municipalities. We have grown to over 850 subdivision accounts throughout St. Louis, Jefferson, St. Charles, Franklin, and Illinois counties. We plan on staying a part of St. Louis history for many years to come.
