Dear Editor:
All property owners in the south part of Callaway County recently received the dreaded news that their property had been reassessed. Probably in all cases, assessed values have gone up, some as much as 90 percent with no changes having been made to property from previous years. This process is needed in order to bring the county into compliance with the State Tax Commissions' mandate of being assessed at 90 percent of the market value. The calculation process is complicated. Callaway County uses Vanguard Appraisals software program which in turn uses the Iowa Cost Manual in determining property values.
The monumental task faced by the county assessor is to input all the data into a new system. I'm sure he would admit that unintentional errors have been made during the process. Be that as it may, I urge each property owner in Callaway County to look over the "Notice of Change in Value of Real Property" sent to you by Mr. Paschal. Seek out the data that he has compiled on your property that was used to determine the new value. Check it over. Make sure the data that he uses is correct. If you have questions or find errors in the assessors data, call him. Let him know.
Many of us don't think much about property taxes until November when the tax bill arrives in our mailbox. November is only five months away! Take a few minutes now to ask some questions, seek data, and make that call. Your deadline for input on your 2018 tax bill is July 1.