State lawmakers are making counties mislead you about property taxes

Yahoo

21-03-2025

That property tax statement you may have received in the mail is misleading. Blame state lawmakers. (iStock / Getty Images Plus)
Iowa's 99 counties are spending your money to mislead you about property taxes. But don't blame the people at your county courthouse. The Iowa Legislature is forcing them do it.
Over the past week, Iowans across the state received taxpayer-funded mailings that distorted the reality of property taxes in this state.
Last week, I got my state-mandated property tax notice from the Scott County auditor, and it informed me that if a $100,000 home went up 10% in assessed value, the taxes imposed by my county for this fall and next spring would rise 12.3%.
But my property value didn't go up 10% last year. It didn't change. I'm sure this is the same for most people. Why? Because 2024 wasn't a reassessment year. These occur in odd-numbered years. The local assessor's offices in this county have said only a small percentage of parcels (about 10-15%) were updated last spring. Many of those that did see changes were due to new construction.
In other words, the 10% scenario described in the mailing isn't based in reality.
Yet, Scott County taxpayers are being forced to spend thousands of dollars to spread this fairy tale.
The county auditor says the mailing cost $40,474.
Iowa legislators mandated these notices as part of a larger tax bill they approved a couple years ago.
At the time, they said they were trying to increase transparency. And to be fair, there is some useful information in these mailings, such as tax rates and the dates of public hearings.
However, the part purporting to describe individual tax bills for later this year and early next — the part people will be most interested in — is bunk.
The notices say the 10% jump in property value is hypothetical, but according to local governments, this notice will inevitably lead to angry phone calls from people who mistakenly believe they're in for a bigger tax bill.
I should note that this year, 2025, is a new reassessment year for the property taxes to be paid in 2026 and 2027, and it is possible people are now seeing some noticeable increases in their assessed values. I did. I'm told Davenport notices are expected to go out in the next week or so, and that residential assessments are up 8.9% overall. However, like in 2023, the residential rollback the state applies this fall will blunt most of the impact when it comes to taxable values, which is what are used to calculate the actual taxes we pay.
The rollback, by law, ensures the statewide residential taxable value does not grow by more than 3%.
Yes, I know this can all be pretty confusing, but it might be instructive to know that in 2023, even after the big assessment shock we got that spring, the rollback applied by the state meant about 62% of parcels in Davenport actually experienced a decline in taxable values, and only 12% of parcels saw an increase in taxable value of 10% or more, according to my analysis of city data.
Anyway, back to the misleading notice.
In a presentation a few weeks ago before the Polk County Board of Supervisors, a local budget official explained that rather than the 11.4% increase the mailing misleadingly describes to taxpayers there, the increase in county taxes will be just 1.3% for urban taxpayers who saw no change in their assessed property value. And that increase, they say, is only happening because of a small change in the residential rollback approved last fall by the state that will slightly affect taxable values.
Yet, Polk County officials said the state told them they could not include their own information in these notices to provide taxpayers the correct figures. Instead, county officials are being forced to mail the misleading information. And pay for it, too. With your tax money.
It's much the same story in Scott County. The county has put a statement on its website pointing out the increase in net taxable value countywide for 2024 was 2.1%. Individuals will see varying results, but the point is this: The vast majority of homeowners did not see a 10% increase in their property values. And they will not see double-digit increases in the taxes they pay this fall and next spring.
That's the reality. But what also is reality is most taxpayers tend not to pay attention to anybody's property values but their own. So, when the state can force local governments to send an official notice to taxpayers suggesting a double-digit tax increase may be in the works, even if it's for somebody else, it is much easier to get Iowans to believe property taxes are out of control.
This, of course, isn't happening in a vacuum.
Members of the state Legislature, mostly those in the Republican majority, and local government officials have been arguing for years about whether the locals are wisely using property tax dollars.
This is a fair argument to have. I think both sides have made some good points. But when lawmakers can use the power of the state to force local governments to mail a deceptive notice to taxpayers that distorts reality, then something has gone very wrong.
This column was originally published by Ed Tibbetts' Along the Mississippi newsletter on Substack. It is republished here through the Iowa Writers' Collaborative.
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