Property Tax 101

Windsor Heights FY 2026 (July 1st, 2025 - June 30th, 2026) Budget

Please note the City of Windsor Heights draft budget is planned to be finalized during an April 21st City Council Public Hearing. Please see the City's Budget webpage for additional information on this years proposed budget which includes a 3 cent City levy decrease.

Important Terms

Assessed Value – The full value of a property primarily determined by its market value (except for agricultural property, which is assessed on productivity and earning capacity). All property is assessed every two years, except railroads and public utilities, which are assessed each year.

Assessment Appeals – Property owners may appeal assessments to local boards of review between April 16 and May 5 of each year.

Consolidated Tax Rate – The total tax rate that a property owner pays for levies established by all taxing authorities. Common taxing authorities include cities, counties, schools, townships and hospitals.

Exempt Property – Property that is exempt from property taxes. Examples include property owned by governmental entities, educational institutions, and religious, charitable or benevolent associations.

Property Tax Levies – Under state law, local governments and other taxing authorities have the authority to certify taxes to be levied and collected by the county government. Levy rates are expressed in dollars and cents per $1,000 of taxable property valuation. City governments are required to submit their property tax levies, along with their budget, to the county assessor and state government by March 15 of each year.

Rollback – Common term to describe element of property tax system that limits taxable valuation growth. Currently, agricultural and residential taxable valuations cannot grow by more than 3 percent. They are also tied together so that if one grows by less than 3 percent, the other must be rolled back to meet the lower amount. Commercial, industrial and railroad property will have a rollback of 95 percent in FY2015 and 90 percent in FY2016 and thereafter. Multi-residential property will have an eight year incremental rollback schedule, starting at 86.25 percent before eventually falling to the residential amount at the end of its schedule.

Taxable Value – The portion of a property’s valuation that is subject to property taxes.

Additional Terms

What Makes Up Your Property Taxes

Property taxes are not determined by a single organization who assesses your property and sends you a bill. The final tax rate is the result of budgets established to provide services, an assessor’s assessment, a county auditor’s calculations, and laws administered by the Iowa Department of Revenue.

Because property assessment involves a series of events that takes 18 months from start to finish, this information will not be able to answer all your questions. It should, however, be able to explain the basic principles and events involved in calculating the property tax rate.

The following organizations set tax levies that make up your property tax bill:

City of Windsor Heights
Des Moines or West Des Moines School Districts
Polk County
DART
Broadlawns
Community College
Assessor
Agriculture Extension
State of Iowa
Sanitary Sewer District

Property Tax Public Hearing Notice Mailing

If you own property in Iowa, you should have recently received a letter from your County about the upcoming budget hearings for the School District, County, and City that your property is located in.

Why did I get this? Is it new?

Under the HF718 passed in 2023, starting in March 2024, ALL property owners in the State of Iowa are required to have direct mailed notices of tax levy hearings sent to them by their respective county auditors. In the past, the notice of public hearings to discuss budget and levy approval have always been published in the local newspaper. In the last few years, there is also a requirement to post the notice of public hearing on any official social media accounts of the taxing entity. So, while the individual mailed notices are new this year, the process for holding hearings is not new.

Do I need to go to all these public hearings?

No. You are not required to attend the meetings, but if you would like to hear more, voice your concerns or pose questions, you should plan to attend. All three taxing authorities will hold a separate hearing specifically to discuss the proposed levy rates shown on page 1. The date, time and location information is provided on page 1 for each entity.

Is this a tax bill?

No. You will continue to receive your annual property tax bill from your county auditor for your actual payments to be made in September and March. This is simply a notice of what next year’s tax levy rate is proposed to be. The goal is to provide opportunities for taxpayers to learn more about the proposed budget and ask questions prior to adoption.

Is this telling me the total tax levy my property will have to pay next year?

No, this only outlines the three main taxing authorities for your property, but it should represent 85%-95% of your total tax rate. There are several other small levy authorities that assess a small percentage of your total tax bill. These include the community college, county hospital, ag extension, sanitary sewer district, and State. You can see what percent these entities make up of your current tax bill on the top section of the back page on the “all others” line of the table.

What is the front page supposed to be telling me?

The front page of the mailed notice is divided into three sections. Each section will show the proposed property tax information and meeting information for the school district, county, and city for your property. Below is an example of what each cell in the tables represent:

What is the back page supposed to be telling me?

At the top of the back page is a snapshot of how the current year taxes for your property’s tax district are distributed between three main taxing authorities represented on the front (School, County, City), plus the “all others” category outlined in #4 above. In general the City’s portion of your total tax bill is between 25%-30%, with the largest portion going to the school district.

The middle of the back page is showing you an example of how much tax would be paid to each taxing authority based on a property with a $100,000 value. The $100,000 represents the assessed value of your property (what you would see on your tax bill) and can easily be multiplied/divided to determine how your property would be impacted. For example to determine the tax being paid on a $250,000 property, you would multiply each rate by 2.5; for a $50,000 property, you would divide in half. Please note: the example assumes a 10% increase in assessed values for properties from last year. This assumption is generally incorrect during non-revaluation years, such as the current year. Most residents will not see any change to their assessed value on non-revaluation years.

An important fact that is often forgotten: a property has two values 1) Assessed Value, which should represent market value as determined by your county auditor, and 2) Taxable Value, which is a lesser amount used to calculate property taxes. The Taxable Value is calculated by taking the Assessed Value multiplied by the State Rollback Rate (currently 46.34%). This means the same $100,000 property value shown on page 2 has a Taxable Value of $46,340.

How come some of my neighbors have a different school information?

Within our city boundaries, we have two different school districts which have their own tax rate.

When does this take effect?

All proposed levies shown would be in effect for the upcoming Fiscal Year, which starts July 1 and goes through June 30.

How can I learn more about these proposed levy rates?

The City’s full budget document can be found here. In this document you can see all the items being recommended for approval and the reasons for the City’s 3 cent decrease to the levy.

How can I tell what this means for the taxes I will pay?

The Department of Management created a simple template to calculate your specific property’s impact of the levy changes reflected in the notice. Click here and click on Citizen Property Tax Estimation Tool

If you are unsure of your property’s actual valuation, please use the Polk County Assessor’s website here enter your address and scroll down to see your Assessed Valuation.