Dickinson County Property Tax Study

Dickinson County’s Assessor wants to study a new property tax system. The Iowa legislature is asking for three counties to compare the current value-based assessments with a simple square-footage formula. Pat Dodds says taxes will never be popular but there might be a more fair way to collect money for counties, cities, and school districts and wants to help find it. Dodds thinks that Dickinson County would be a good test market and will officially request to be part of the three-county study if the county conference board, which oversees the Assessor’s office, gives her their blessing. While the study would be conducted on behalf of the state, Dickinson would have to fund its own participation. If Dickinson County is selected to be a test county, property taxes will not change, but will be figured both by the current valuation system and the proposed square-footage system for comparative purposes.