Chances are a lot of companies and individuals that own commercial property in Webster County are scrambling right now to get all their paperwork in order so they can meet an important deadline Tuesday.

Yes, Halloween is the last day they can file an appeal if they want to challenge a scary surprise received from their state government that could potentially hit their finances pretty hard in the form of higher tax bills

The state Department of Revenue last month issued an equalization order that would increase the assessed valuation of all commercial property in the county by 14 percent.

That move came after the same department earlier this year issued an equalization order upping the values by 12 percent. Webster County Assessor Angie Vinson and her staff had worked hard to set proper valuations. It was a tough chore because there were just 30 commercial properties sold in 2020, and that sales data is key in determining valuations. When that first equalization order came out, Vinson thought it was wrong. She challenged it.

Her effort was not successful. The state agency not only rejected her appeal, it boosted the equalization order to 14 percent.

What? How does that happen? It would at least be understandable if the state agency rejected the appeal and kept its previous 12 percent increase in place. But to jack up the equalization order to 14 percent seems unreasonable.

It is not clear why the equalization order was increased. Iowa Department of Revenue officials so far aren’t volunteering any explanations.

All this comes on the heels of new assessments for residential property that came out this spring, boosting values by 10 percent to 45 percent. Needless to say, property values are kind of a sore subject for Webster County property owners right now.

At this point, we are not going to try to second-guess the calculations that went into these valuations. We are, however, challenging our state officials to be more transparent about the process. We believe that any time an equalization order is issued, it should be accompanied by an explanation written in laymen’s terms.

Doing so should be a basic part of serving the citizens and taxpayers.