New budget process gives taxpayers an early look at proposed rates
/Property taxpayers in Iowa will receive a new letter from their county auditors this budget season.
The letter will inform taxpayers of upcoming hearings on proposed property tax levies for the cities, schools and the county.
The letter will contain the following information.
• The date, time and location of the school, county and city public hearings where the proposed property taxation for the next fiscal year will be presented.
• The current property tax rate and current property tax revenue.
• The effective tax rate, which is a rate produced by holding current taxation levels constant while using the next fiscal year’s taxable values.
This new process of sending out letters for the proposed property tax hearing is one of the changes brought about by House File 718, which was passed last year.
The county auditor’s office will send out the letters to taxpayers by March 20. It will require a quick turnaround as the deadline is March 15 for the cities, schools and county to file their information with the Department of Management. For that reason, in a letter to each city and school district, the Crawford County Auditor’s Office urged submitting information to the Department of Management by March 5. This would allow the auditor’s office time to download and merge the data with taxpayer information in time for the March 20 mailing. A company, Mail Services, LLC, is assisting the auditor's office with the mailing.
The new proposed property tax notice hearings cannot be conducted until March 25.
No action will be taken at the proposed property tax notice hearings. Formal action would come at the final public hearings on the budgets in April.
A person who owns multiple parcels of property in multiple taxing districts would receive all the information in one mailing.
County Auditor Terri Martens asks that anyone who has questions about the letter they receive to call her office at 712-263-6045.
The county board of supervisors will be setting the dates for the county’s hearings at Tuesday’s meeting.
The Denison School Board already set the dates for the school district’s hearings. (See story on page one.)
Denison City Clerk Jodie Flaherty gave the following schedule for the city’s budget process.
February 21: Set public hearing for the consolidated general fund tax levy
April 2: public hearing on the consolidated general fund tax levy
April 2: set public hearing for the fiscal year 2024-2025 budget
April 23: public hearing on the budget
Follow us on Facebook for the latest news and updates
