Ask Mr. Answer Person about updated property taxes

Mr. Answer Person says: "You've touched one of Mr. AP's sore spots, which is the way property taxes get discussed.

That's because there are two factors that go into how high your property tax bill is--the property tax rate and the property's assessed valuation.  We've already talked about how some Winneshiek County owners of residential property got their valuations raised by 12-15 percent.  That means their property taxes have gone up by 12-15 percent if the property tax rate stayed the same.

Put another way, the higher assessed valuations resulted in higher property taxes, but these "extra funds" weren't unexpected--they were planned for in school, city, county and other local budgets.

That's why you should never put much stock in a news story which says, "The city's property tax rate will stay the same the next year."  The more appropriate question would be, "What has happened to overall spending?"  Because if that figure is higher, chances are good that the figure on your yearly property tax bill will be higher, too."