Allamakee County Auditor advises property owners to be looking for proposed property tax rate mailing

A recent State of Iowa law change requires county auditors to mail a statement to their county taxpayers by March 20 with state-specified information related to proposed local government budgets and proposed property tax rates, according to Iowa Code 24.2A.

The information on the statements is for taxes payable in September 2024 and March 2025. Property owners should receive a statement if they expect to receive a property tax bill in September. Taxpayers owning more than one property may receive multiple letters if those properties are in different tax districts.

“I believe the HF718 legislation was passed to help improve transparency of the budget process for cities, schools and the county,” stated Allamakee County Auditor Denise Beyer.

This statement to taxpayers is not a property tax bill.  It includes data for proposed city, school district and county budgets but does not include proposed property tax data for smaller taxing authorities, such as community colleges, hospitals, assessor’s office, townships and agricultural extension service.

The purpose of the statement is to provide taxpayers with information about the proposed city, school district and county budgets in time for the taxpayers to address the proposals at public hearings held prior to the tax rates and budgets being approved by those entities. The date, time and location of all hearings are included in the statements. The proposed budgets may be lowered after the hearings but not raised. A property owner not receiving a statement by the public hearing date does not prevent the hearing from taking place.

Included on each statement is an example of the impact of the proposed city, school and county property tax rates on both a $100,000 residential property and $100,000 commercial property. The actual impact of the tax rates on a property could be quite different than the examples in the statement, which do not factor any possible change in the assessed value. If a property value was recently reassessed to a higher amount, the example on the statement will not accurately reflect the effect of that valuation increase on property taxes.

For further information, contact Allamakee County Auditor Denise Beyer at 563-568-3522. Property owners who were anticipating receiving such a statement but have not by March 25 may contact the Allamakee County Auditor’s Office at the above number. All city, school and county public hearing notices are posted on their respective websites, if those entities have one.