Greene County continues to see an increase in overall land valuations.
According to a report from the Iowa Department of Management, Greene County had a 4.26-percent increase in land valuation over the previous year to $714,447. The rural portion went up 3.74-percent, while the urban part showed an increase of 5.58-percent.
Greene County Real Estate and Tax Coordinator Pam Olerich says there were changes made to the tax increment financing (TIF) portion of the report. She points out, a new addition was $5,062,680 of TIF to the County from the increment valuation of the new wind turbines. The City of Jefferson is the only other entity that uses TIF, which went up 55.06-percent. Olerich says the large increase was due to the downtown buildings that the City owns.
Other city entities that had noticeable increases included Dana at 34.46-percent, Grand Junction with 16.49-percent and Rippey of 11.17-percent. Olerich notes the Dana increase may be due to a misclassification of a property. The only decrease was for Jefferson agriculture of 0.12-percent. Olerich explains, agriculture land parcels had transitioned to other classifications, such as the Greene County School District project with the new high school and career academy, along with the new Jefferson Veterinary Clinic and crematory with Slininger-Schroeder Funeral Home.
Olerich adds the other impacts for land valuation was the 19-percent equalization order on commercial land, an 81-percent state rollback on agriculture land that offset the decrease in overall agriculture land values. Click the link below to see the report.