Mission Statement
To provide fair and equitable assessments to all property owners in Winneshiek County.
Welcome
Welcome to the web site for the Winneshiek County Assessor’s Office. It is our goal to provide information to the public about the duties of the assessor and various services offered by this office. We hope that you will find our web site to be beneficial and informative. Please visit our online real estate site for up to date property information. Thank you for visiting the site and have a great day.
About the Assessor
Assessors are appointed to their position by a Conference Board consisting of the members of the Board of Supervisors, the Mayors of all cities, and a member of each school district within the jurisdiction.
Assessors are required by law to pass a state examination and complete a continuing education program consisting of 150 hours of formal classroom instruction with 90 hours tested and a passing grade of 70 attained. The latter requirement must be met in order for the Assessor to be reappointed to the position every six years.
The Conference Board approves the Assessor’s budget and after a public hearing acts on adoption of the same. The Assessor is limited, by statute, depending upon the value of the jurisdiction, to a levy limitation for the budget.
Duties of the Assessor
The Assessor is charged with several administrative and statutory duties. The primary duty and responsibility is to assess all real property within the Assessor’s jurisdiction except that which is otherwise provided by law. This would include residential, commercial, industrial and agricultural classes of property.
Real property is revalued every two years. The effective date of the assessment is January first of each year. The Assessor determines a full or partial value for all new construction and improvements depending upon their state of completion as of that January first date.
GENERAL MISCONCEPTIONS ABOUT THE ASSESSOR’S DUTIES
The Assessor DOES NOT:
- Collect taxes
- Calculate taxes
- Determine tax rate
- Set policy for the Board of Review
The Assessor is concerned with value, not taxes. Taxing jurisdictions such as schools, cities and county, adopt budgets after public hearings. This determines the tax levy, which is the rate of taxation required to raise the money budgeted.
The taxes you pay are proportional to the value of your property compared to the total value of property in your taxing district.