Floyd County tax rates decline, but tax bills likely to increase

By Bob Steenson, bsteenson@charlescitypress.com

The main tax levy rates for Floyd County property owners will be decreasing for the next fiscal year beginning July 1, but that doesn’t mean the taxes on properties will be going down or that fewer tax dollars will be collected.

The county Board of Supervisors set 8:30 a.m. on Monday, March 25, for the public hearing on the next year’s proposed county property tax rates – what for the last several years had been called the “max tax” hearing. The board’s regular Monday morning meeting will follow the special hearing that day.

After the projected tax rates for the county are approved on March 25, the amount of taxes collected could still be lowered before the county budget is officially approved, but could not be increased.

The tax levy rates for county general services for all people owning property in the county and the additional rural services for people with property in the rural areas will both be going down.

“I assure you many counties will not be able to reduce their levies,” said Supervisor Chair Mark Kuhn at Monday’s meeting.

But the county’s debt service is rising dramatically. The county is still paying off the bonds sold to build the county Law Enforcement Center and rejuvenate the courthouse, but this year the county also approved issuing almost $5 million in bonds for the new countywide communications system for law enforcement, fire departments and other emergency responders.

Payment on those new bonds next year will add more than 54 cents per $1,000 of assessed taxable valuation to the total taxes collected.

The county will also collect more tax dollars because even though some rates declined, the total valuation in the county on which those rates are collected increased by almost 7%, climbing past a billion dollars this year, to $1,005,817,764.

Floyd County Assessor Brandi Schmidt said she expects a lot of confusion with the form for the public hearing that the state now requires counties to use.

The form will show that based on the levy rates that are listed, individual property taxes are going down – by 14.5% for an “urban taxpayer” and by 15.7% for a “rural taxpayer.”

But the form doesn’t take into consideration that most people saw an increase in their property’s taxable valuation last year, Schmidt said. The form is based on a property’s taxable value being the same from last year to this year, “which most likely is not the case,” she said.

Kuhn said, “It’s a state form. It needs further explanation. Let’s not let the discussion of the total form detract from what this board has done, which is we lowered the tax levies.”

He said the supervisors and other county officials will need to explain what the proposed property tax levy form means at the public hearing.

“That’s very important, because you don’t want it to mislead the public, to think that they’re going to have a 14% reduction,” he said.

“Their taxes will not be reduced by 14%,” Schmidt agreed.

County Auditor Gloria Carr looked up a house with approximately a $100,000 valuation in 2022. After reevaluations in 2023 that house is now listed with a taxable valuation of $120,000. Even taking into account the higher rollback this year mandated by legislative action, the county portion of the taxes on that house will go from $344 to $352.50, she said.

“Our primary increase is because of the (communications system) bond we didn’t have,” Carr said. “If you took that bond off of there they would be less.”

County taxes are just part of the total taxes property owners in Floyd County pay. All county property owners pay school tax to the district their property is in. For people who live in Charles City by far the largest part of their total property tax bill goes to the city.

In addition to the city, school and county, there are several smaller levies for various purposes. For example, a property tax payer in Charles City in the current year had their property tax bill divided up about like this:

• City property tax – 46.7%.
• Charles City school tax – 31.3%.
• Floyd County tax – 12.7%.
• NIACC Community College tax – 2.9%.
• Debt service – 2.5%.
• County hospital – 1.2%.
• Assessor – 1.2%.
• St. Charles/CC Cemetery – 0.8%.
• Ag extension – 0.7%.

Kuhn said the changes in property tax rules and notifications are the law.

“It is what it is,” he said. “We will definitely make every attempt to clarify and educate property owners in Floyd County regarding what this is.”