Chickasaw County officials expressed frustrations in Monday’s (04.07) Board of Supervisors meeting on the battle against property tax misconceptions.
Among the issues for school, city and county governments, as they work to formulate their budgets for the 2025-2026 fiscal year, is misleading information from the State on how assessed property tax valuations are being factored into the tax rates. That’s led to many municipalities publishing max tax levy rates in which taxpayers could see their payments jump by almost 12%.
Monday, County Assessor Ray Armel explained that Supervisors have no say in assessing tax valuations, which falls on Assessors and State oversight.
Armel urged taxpayers with valuation assessment questions to contact him directly, rather than hoping for answers through social media.
Sheriff Ryan Shawver echoed Armel’s position.
Supervisor Jacob Hackman also noted that several other entities within the county draw payments from taxpayers, not just the County.
No tax rates have been officially set to start July 1st and none will be until after Supervisors hold the public hearing on the FY25-26 budget is next Monday (04.14) morning.
Supervisors also gave Armel the go-ahead to have a letter explaining the process for assessing property tax valuations published by local media outlets. A copy of that letter is available below:
Chickasaw County Assessor’s Office
Chickasaw County Courthouse
8 E. Prospect Street
New Hampton, Iowa 50659
641-394-2813; [email protected]
Raymond L. Armel CGA, ICA
Assessor
April 3, 2025
To Whom It May Concern,
There has been talk over the social network regarding the recent assessment notices, the role of the supervisors and the current budget climate. I will simply start by stating that the responsibility to set assessed values rests with three entities. The primary responsible entity is the Assessor. The Board of Review and the Iowa Department of Revenue have oversight responsibility.
The office of Assessor is governed by the Conference Board. The Conference Board is comprised of three units, the board of supervisors, the mayors from each town and a representative from each of the school boards. Each of these units have one vote. The conference board appoints the assessor subject to approval by the Director of Revenue and Finance, determines the number of deputy assessors and sets the budget of the assessor’s office. All other administrative functions are the responsibility of the assessor.
The Assessor has numerous statutory responsibilities, of which, the first and foremost is the valuation of real property. The Assessor’s Office serves as the steward of the tax base, initiating the property tax cycle. Its primary functions include ensuring that all property is valued at statutory levels, maintaining fairness and equity in property assessments, uniformly applying assessment processes, and identifying all taxable property for inclusion in the tax base.
The Assessor is charged, by statute, to value property at its “Actual Value” as defined by law. The Actual Value for Residential, Commercial, Industrial and R+3(Multi Residential) is the “Fair and Reasonable” indication of Market Value. For Assessment purposes, Iowa Code further defines Market Value in Iowa Code 441.21 ss1.b(1). The Assessor DOES NOT establish property taxes or the levy rates. The values are used to spread the tax askings of the taxing bodies, including but not limited to, schools, cities, counties, conference board, townships, area colleges, etc.
The effective date of assessment is January 1 of each year. Each odd numbered assessment year, such as January 1, 2025, is known as a revaluation year. The Assessor is further charged, by statute, to re-assess ALL property in his/her jurisdiction based on this effective date of value. When doing so, the Assessor utilizes statistical measures to determine their current level of assessment prior to any changes. These same measures are applied in determining the changes in value that may be required to meet the statutory level of assessment. The statutory level of assessment is a median sales ratio lying between 95% and 105% for each class of property. The Assessor then aims for a median ratio of 100%. If the median ratio prior to adjusting is 85%, an adjustment of 17.647% would be required to attain a median ratio of 100% (1-(100/85)).
The Assessor, through this process, is interpreting the market activities of sellers and buyers. The Assessor does not establish the market, sellers and buyers of property are setting the market. Not all property in a given jurisdiction increases or decreases at the same rate. The Assessor reviews shifts in the market activity by town, neighborhood, style of home, age of home, condition of home to name a few. Once this is accomplished, the Assessor applies their findings to the appraisal software and re-establishes the assessed values for their jurisdiction.
Because this is a reassessment year, it is also known as an equalization year. The Iowa Department of Revenue and Finance has additional oversight of the values in these years. The Department reviews sales throughout the prior year and maintains this sales list as does the Assessor. The Department, in the fall, will compare their sales analysis to the updated or re-assessed values established by the Assessor, and determine if the Assessor has complied with their statutory duty. If the Department finds that an assessing jurisdiction does not meet the statutory guidelines, they would issue an equalization order retroactive to January 1. This order would adjust the values on an aggregate basis and not consider the various market conditions existing throughout the jurisdiction.
Agricultural property is valued based upon a 5-year productivity formula as established by state statute. The following years of income and expenses were used:
For the 1-1-2023 assessment: 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017
For the 1-1-2025 assessment: 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019
The Department of Revenue provides each assessing jurisdiction with a calculated average value per acre for the county. The Assessor’s office then allocates the average value per acre to each individual parcel by land use, CSR2 rating and to ag buildings.
1-1-2023 1-1-2025
Statewide average value / acre $1,740.89 +29.31% $2,238.60
Chickasaw Co average value / acre $1,887.65 +34.22% $2,533.57
The current 5-years still includes income from the COVID years subsidies.
The two years dropped were marginal years of commodity prices.
Residential and Commercial property is to be valued at a “fair and reasonable indication of market value”. The Assessor’s office utilizes statistical measures to determine their level of assessment. Sales ratio statistics are utilized on a county wide basis as well as on a more localized basis such as town by town. Iowa law requires our median ratio to be between 95% and 105%.
Following are the residential statistics both before and after the January 1, 2025 assessments were adjusted:
Median Sales Ratio
Prior After
County wide 87.21% 100.91%
Rural only 78.55% 102.29%
Urban only 88.59% 100.87%
If a property owner is not satisfied with the value set, the owner may appeal the value as follows:
- April, 2 – 25, informal appeal directly to the Assessor.
- April, 2 – 30, formal petition to the Board of Review.
The property owner may appeal the Board of Review’s decision to either/both PAAB (State Property Assessment Appeal Board) and/or District Court.
The responsibility to maintain values at their statutory level rests solely with the Assessor with oversight by the Department of Revenue. No other office or administrator has this authority with the exception of the Board of Review. The Board of Review serves as a quasi-judicial board. This Board receives petitions from property owners as an appeal of the values established by the Assessor. The Board has judicial power including the power to subpoena witnesses and records. The Department of Revenue reviews the values of each jurisdiction to determine if we are in compliance with the statute. If a jurisdiction is not in compliance, the Department issues an equalization order in October adjusting the values accordingly retroactive to the January 1, 2025 assessment.
The Assessor clearly has a responsibility, not just administratively but by statute, to maintain values as directed by statute. Not because of any directive, but because of compliance with the law dictates. Oversight is in place to assure that a jurisdictions values meet the guidelines as set forth in code. The Department of Revenue also has the power to direct a complete revaluation of all or part of an assessment jurisdiction. This would be at the cost of the assessment expense fund as well. This too is a reason why the Assessor must maintain values at the level as directed by statute.
I am available to answer any questions or concerns you may have regarding the assessment process. If you have a civic organization that would be interested in learning more, please give me a call.
Respectfully,
Raymond L. Armel CGA, ICA
Chickasaw County Assessor
President, Iowa State Association of Assessors
