Dunwell asks elected officials to better communicate property taxes

To help residents in Jasper County better comprehend their property taxes, Jon Dunwell, a Newton business owner and former Republican candidate for Iowa House District 29, wants local governments and school districts to develop a way to effectively communicate the complicated subject.

During the public comments portion of the Jasper County Board of Supervisors meeting on Aug. 2, Dunwell said he spoke with a number of elected officials in the courthouse individually about his idea. He also reached out to city council members, local city officials and the school board chair to discuss his proposal.

“I have a meeting next week to discuss a little bit more about what it could look like to bring what we’ve talked about — greater transparency and community engagement when it comes to property taxes,” Dunwell said, suggesting the county, city and school district come up with a consolidated statement.

Prior to any public hearings, Dunwell wants to see every taxpayer receive a statement indicating what they paid the past year, the proposed levies for the upcoming year, the real dollars they’d pay if the levies are approved and a list of meeting dates before the levies are acted on by elected officials.

So far, Dunwell suggested everyone he’s spoken with is receptive to exploring his concept. Dunwell said upcoming meetings he has with people from the State of Utah, who actually practice this concept, will give him better insight as to the logistics of his proposal, which he believes would benefit the county as a whole.

“Jasper County (could) potentially become one of the first counties in the state to actually create that kind of community engagement, that kind of transparency,” Dunwell said, adding a consolidated statement from the three major entities would make more sense rather than multiple messages to residents.

Dunwell told supervisors he could meet with them again individually when he collects his findings and could put the matter on a future agenda. Teresa Arrowood of the Jasper County Auditor’s Office asked Dunwell how his idea would work. Dunwell explained it would a mailer sent to residents.

“It lays out what the taxes would be — we’re suggesting — per entity,” he said. “So it would maybe be a consolidated part of the statement that would say here’s what your potential tax bill potentially could be.”

Arrowood said there’s a lot more that go into taxes than just levies, like rollbacks.

“A lot of that isn’t decided until the last week,” she said.

Dunwell relented some of the information would be “guesstimates” based upon what the entities report. Dunwell said Iowans For Tax Relief, a lobbyist group, has talked with the assessor’s office on the ability to create such documents. Arrowood corrected that she does that and not the assessor’s office.

“I encourage you not to be so negative at first — that’s why we’re in the process of investigating of what it looks like,” Dunwell said.

Arrowood said, “I’m just trying in my head to figure out how to even… because our program will not do that.”

Jasper County Auditor Dennis Parrott said the logistics of what Dunwell is proposing are “very difficult” but the concept itself is “fabulous,” adding that Arrowood’s comments weren’t negative but more so a natural reaction to a how this idea might be achieved. Dunwell said it’s merely in the discussion phase.

Jasper County Treasurer Doug Bishop said as someone whose name goes out on the tax statements, he thinks it’s a fantastic idea and would like to see residents get as much information as they can; particularly before the tax statements are released and complaints becoming flooding in to his office.

“Nothing is more frustrating for our office than to have those statements come out and have everyone come in screaming, ‘I can’t believe you guys did this!’ So you try to tell ‘em there was a seven-month process before we even got here, and you have to participate at this end before you come in and be angry,” he said.

Prior to the start of fiscal year 2022, Dunwell repeatedly spoke about property taxes during public comments of city council, board of supervisors and school board meetings. Much like his statements then, Dunwell stressed the importance of government “engagement and transparency.”

“Because what I don’t want to see happen in Iowa or our county is someone telling us how much we can spend or what our levy can only go up by. That’s between the voters and their elected representatives,” Dunwell said.

Contact Christopher Braunschweig at 641-792-3121 ext. 6560 or cbraunschweig@newtondailynews.com