By PETER HUSSMANN
About 10 percent of county property owners have been notified of changes to their assessed values in mailing sent by the Jasper County Assessor's office last week.
Jasper County Assessor John Deegan said that approximately 3,300 notices were sent to owners of all classes of property in the county. The changes in assessed value reflect an increase, decrease or change to an abatement schedule. Individuals not receiving a letter had no change to their assessed value.
County assessors are required to do a parcel-by-parcel revaluation of all properties every two years. Assessed values are required to reflect market values of properties based on actual sales.
Deegan said changes to the assessed values of properties in the county this year is typical of the number of readjustments his office has made in past assessment years.
Beginning a week from today, individuals are allowed to contest their property value assessments by filing an appeal with the Jasper County Board of Review. Appeals must be filed with the assessor's office from April 16 to May 5. A copy of the petition form that needs to be completed, including the grounds the property owner is using to contest the valuation, can be seen here.
The Jasper County Board of Review will hold its organizational meeting on May 1. After the deadline for filing appeals passes, hearings will be held by the board with those individuals petitioning for a review of the valuation set by the assessor's office. Members of the local board of review are Jo Jenkins, Dennis Julius, Duane Rozendaal and Crystal Failor. Hearings, which are open meetings under state statutes, will be held through the end of May.
Property owners not satisfied with the findings of the Board of Review have two avenues to follow. Individuals may appeal directly to the district court or file a petition for reconsideration with the Iowa Property Assessment Appeal Board (PAAB), a relatively new state office specifically set up to hear property assessment appeals. The decisions of this state board are also eligiblefor appeal to the district court. Information on PAAB can be found here.
Two thousand and nine also marks a statewide equalization year.
The Iowa Department of Revenue and Finance is required by statute to "equalize" property assessments every odd numbered year. Equalization is a series of adjustments the department can order to ensure equitable property assessments among classes of property within an assessment jurisdiction. The department first compares the assessor's abstracts of property assessments to a "sales assessment ratio study" completed independently. If the assessment, by property class, is 5 percent or more above or below the sales ratio study, the Department of Revenue requires the assessor to increase or decrease the property assessments within the jurisdiction.
Equalization order adjustments occur on an entire class of property, not individual properties. In addition, equalization adjustments occur on a jurisdictional, not on a statewide basis.
Preliminary equalization orders are issued by the Department of Revenue in August with final orders released in October.
In 2007, the state ordered a 23.10 percent increase on the value of agricultural land within the county. Residential and commercial properties in Jasper County saw no change.
Recent Comments