Greene County’s 2018 land valuation saw an overall healthy increase.

According to a report from the Iowa Department of Management, Greene County had a 4.51-percent increase in land valuation over the previous year to $685,287. The rural portion went up 4.67-percent, while the urban part had a 4.08-percent increase.

Greene County Real Estate and Tax Coordinator Pam Olerich says the city entity with the highest increase was Ralston at 10.41-percent. She points out in her conversation with County Assessor Adam Smith, they don’t know the reasons for the large increase at this time. She also points out that all but two portions of city entities had an increase in land valuations. Dana Agricultural (only agricultural parcels) decreased by 2.69-percent and Grand Junction Agricultural dropped by 0.41-percent.

Olerich notes that tax increment financing (TIF) valuation is down by 14-percent. She says that’s mostly due to some of the City of Jefferson’s TIF projects starting to be financially sustaining such as the Hy-Vee and Wild Rose projects. She adds that the County’s TIF from the wind turbines was not calculated into the 2018 land valuations because they did not exist when the report was done on January 1, 2018.