After owners of Webster County commercial properties learn their assessed values are potentially rising by 14 percent, County Assessor Angie Vinson won’t be surprised if people file appeals by the Oct. 31 deadline.

Some Webster County commercial owners are displeased with the rising assessments in part because they could lead to higher property taxes.Vinson herself isn’t very happy with the state’s recent equalization order, which put in place even higher assessments than Vinson’s office thought was necessary.

“I am upset about it, I am not going to lie,” she said.

Even more surprising was the process that led to the 14 percent increase order from the Iowa Department of Revenue. Every odd-numbered year, Iowa counties must update the assessed valuations of all classifications of property. The goal is to link county assessments so that they are equal to the trend of recent sales market values.

Vinson said her team in the Assessor’s Office concertedly work to put the values at the right amounts. The Iowa Department of Revenue overviews all counties as a second set of eyes on the valuations.

“We try to do it well in-house so we don’t get this,” she said.

The last time the Iowa Department of Revenue issued an equalization order on Webster County commercial assessments came in 2015.

After the state looked at the initial Webster County commercial property assessments, it said in July that values should be set with a 12 percent increase. Vinson challenged that as too high.

The state responded in late September with a surprise – not only did the Department of Revenue not agree, it said the hike should move from 12 to 14 percent.

“We weren’t the only county, we weren’t the highest county,” Vinson said. “Other counties got it, too, some for commercial properties, some for residential properties.”

The fact that other Iowa counties are also having higher assessed values isn’t making the reality go down easier in Webster County. Commentary seen on social media in recent days showed some people complaining about the higher commercial assessments.

The higher assessments have the potential to lead to higher property taxes, depending upon what county supervisors, city councils and school boards due next spring when setting fiscal year 2024-2025 budgets.

Property taxes are determined by two factors, the assessed valuations and the property tax rates set by those three taxing bodies. If the tax levies don’t decrease next year, property taxes could go up, depending upon what happens with the so-called rollback percentage which determines how much of a property’s value is taxable.

All this comes on the heels of the spring 2023 months, when another category of valuation assessments – residential home assessments – also got big hikes, including up to 45 percent.

Vinson said her team did the best it could, but it was difficult to set commercial property values, since only 30 such properties sold in the county in 2020.

“Before, values were stagnant, but now they are going up,” Vinson said, referencing increased sales prices that followed the national housing trend of inflation.

Letters went out the first week of October to Webster County property owners, explaining their option to appeal valuations by Oct. 31. Property owners will need to have statistical evidence to support their argument that their assessed valuation should be lowered. Those appeals would be decided by a special session of the Board of Review.