Hancock County Higher Property Values
Hancock County, IA-New regulations are forcing a North Iowa county to re-evalute all of its property values.
Hancock County is seeing higher land values. That number figures out to be about a 1% jump. The County Assessor said most homeowners probably won't see a large increase value unless they've made changes to their property. The same goes for businesses.
Marrianne Welsch says agriculture land is where the big change comes. She says the county's farm land valued increase by more than 50 percent. Higher value means higher taxes but Welsch says agricultral rollbacks is just one item that will help offset that cost.
"The increase on the ag land was 169 million dollars couldn't bring a 169 million dollars into tax base without lowering the levy," said Welsch.
Welsch tells us this assessment may have saved taxpayers money. Without the new land values, the state would have put an across the board 9% tax increase.
Welsch says she doesn't know if these new assessments will make a difference come tax time. She says that's up to city and county governments. These assessments will be used to add up next year's property taxes.
