Legislators oppose Multi-HousinCi~ Ma~ger's Office
50 West 13th Street
Dubuque, Iowa 520014864
(319) 5894110
(319)5894149 FAX
December 5, 2001
The Honorable Mike Connolly
Iowa State Senator
3458 Daniels
Dubuque, IA 52001
Re: Legislation on Multi-Unit Housing Assessments
Dear Senator Connolly:
The Dubuque City Assessor was contacted by the Appanoose County Assessor's Office
regarding anticipated legislation that would have a major impact on city finance. The
legislation that is being discussed would provide that multi-unit housing would no longer
be classified as commercial property when applying the state-wide rollback factors. For
fiscal year 2003, all commercial properly will be taxed at 98.8% of its assessed value. If
this type of structure was treated as residential property for application of the rollback
factor, it would be taxed at only 51.7% of its assessed value. The impact this would
have on the City of Dubuque would be to reduce taxable valuation from $115,650,400 to
$60,517,466, or a loss of $55,132,933 in taxable valuation. If the fiscal year 2002 tax
rate were applied to this valuation loss, the estimated tax loss would be $1,715,818.
This would cause an 11% property tax increase for the remaining City properties to
make up for the loss of municipal revenues. We have not analyzed the impact on the
remaining taxing bodies.
We urge you to oppose this legislation if it is introduced due to the dire consequences it
would have on our ability to maintain essential City services and provide the quality of
life our citizens desire.
Sincerely,
Michael C. Van Milligen
City Manager
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The Honorable Mike Connolly
Iowa State Senator
3458 Daniels
Dubuque, IA 52001
The Honorable Pam Jochum
Iowa State Representative
2368 Jackson
Dubuque, IA 52001
The Honorable Robert Osterhaus
Iowa State Representative
216 Austin
Maquoketa, IA 52060
The Honorable Thomas Flynn
Iowa State Senator
21367 Girl Scout Road
Epworth, IA 52045
The Honorable Pat Murphy
Iowa State Representative
155 N. Grandview Avenue
Dubuque, IA 52001
The Honorable Paul Scherrman
Iowa State Representative
P.O. Box 309
Farley, IA 52046