50-State Property Tax Comparison Study Released


It seems that calls for reform and simplification of Iowa's property tax system are an annual occurrence, and this year will be no exception as calls for property tax reform are being made during the election cycle.

The Iowa Taxpayers Association (ITA) has just released its updated property tax study which sheds light on how Iowa ranks nationally in various classifications.   ITA extends its appreciation to the Minnesota Taxpayers Association for their research and distribution of this information; and to the other participating associations of the National Taxpayers Conference of which the Iowa Taxpayers Association is a member.


Since 1995, Iowa has consistently ranked in the top twenty with the highest effective tax rates for all urban and rural property classifications; with the exception of rural industrial which ranked in the top 25 in 2000 and 2002.   

 

Iowa's homestead rankings have increased slightly with rural rankings experiencing the sharpest increase with a 2004 ranking of 16 to a new ranking of 10 for $150,000 and $300,000 homesteads.  This increase may be due, in part, to the newly selected rural comparison city.  Grinnell has been used as the "typical rural city" in previous studies; however it was no longer representative of Iowa's typical rural city. 

 

Commercial rankings remained relatively stable; rankings dipped down two to three places for each category.  However, Iowa still ranks in the top five highest commercial property taxes for urban and top ten for rural. 

 

Not one property classification ---- urban or rural --- was below the national average.

 

The Iowa Taxpayers Association, the state's leading business tax policy resource, is a statewide non-partisan organization providing business tax policy information for over 70 years. 

 
Contact:  Stacey L. Johnson

515/243-0300

sjohnson@iowataxpayers.org

  

# # #