Property owners to receive new mailing about proposed rates, but Mason City mayor says information can be deceiving

MASON CITY — Property owners will soon be receiving a new mailing containing information about the proposed property tax rates for the next fiscal year. A new Iowa law requires that a budget statement be mailed to property owners after March 20th of each year. The statement includes information regarding school, county, and city proposed tax rates as well as information about scheduled public hearings regarding the proposed tax rates.

Mason City mayor Bill Schickel says that mailing when it comes to the city’s portion of the property taxes will be a bit deceiving.  “We’re required to publish this notice that actually shows a 15% drop in property taxes, we’ll that ain’t gonna happen. It’s not going to be a 15% drop in property taxes, it will be a slight decrease, but because of some inaccurate calculations that were required by the legislature, that’s what they’re requiring us to do. When we send that information out, we’ll try to have some clarifying information there and work through that with everybody.”

Schickel says the city will continue to express their concerns about the new law with state legislators.  “We think there’s a communications problem there. It’s unclear and we think the criteria that the legislature requires has made it unclear, and so we’re maintaining that partnership with our friends in Des Moines and seeing if we can get this straightened out.” The City of Mason City will conduct its “Truth in Taxation” hearing on March 26th at 7:00 PM in the Mason City Room of the Public Library.

Additional information about budget statements will be made available online at dom.iowa.gov/property-taxes on or after March 20th.