Tax-free property

Posted by Iowa RealEstateRama

July 11, 2007

More than $436 million in property is exempt from paying property taxes in Linn County.

And that’s not counting government-owned property, which also is not taxed.

The tax-exempt land and buildings belong to nonprofit organizations, churches, schools, colleges and others.

New Linn County Auditor Joel Miller is inviting the public to scrutinize a list of the tax-exempt properties in the county and see whether any of them should be put on the tax rolls.

If the real estate records are not accurate, he said, ‘‘we need to get them corrected.’’

Johnson County Deputy Auditor Mark Kistler likes the idea of posting taxexempt property lists on the Internet but said it would be some time before Johnson County could get that done.

Johnson County, he said, has at least $273 million in tax-exempt property. The total does not include University of Iowa property.

That UI property — 393 buildings — has a replacement value of $5.7 billion, said Steve Parrott, director of university relations.

Miller said he was surprised to learn just how much property in Linn County is tax-exempt.

The total — $436,187,849 — includes 2,291 properties in 95,239 parcels. The land is valued at $84.3 million, assessors do not put values on property held by cities and counties. Linn County, he said, owns 232 tax-exempt properties.

But here are the insurance appraisals for public properties, as provided by financial officers for the governmental entities:

Linn County — $71.5 million ($7 million in land, $29.7 million in buildings and $34.8 million in infrastructure, mostly roads).

Johnson County — $30.7 million for 87 county-owned buildings. (That ranges from $7.5 million for the courthouse to $1,200 for the entry kiosk at a county park.)

City of Cedar Rapids — $656.9 million for 481 city-owned buildings and properties.

Among the Linn County-owned properties that caught Miller’s eye were the 3.72 acres along the Cedar River near Eighth Avenue SW, which includes the Mott Building, and the Freeway Express Lounge, 801 Third St. SW, near the county’s new Elections Storage Building.

Linn County bought the riverfront property a few years ago with an eye toward someday building new county offices. That idea has faded because of cost and county supervisors’ apprehension over whether voters would approve bonds to finance such a building.

The county has been trying to sell the property for more than a year for $1.9 million, with no takers so far.

The county acquired the Freeway Express building when it bought land near the Administrative Office Building, 930 First St. SW, for the Elections Storage Building.

The Freeway property, though, is on the tax rolls because the county leases it to the operators, who pay rent.

Taxes of $3,400 a year are paid out of that rent, said Mike Goldberg, Linn County administrative services director. Anytime a government-owned property is leased for commercial purposes, it remains on the tax rolls, he said.

Among other county-owned properties paying taxes, he said, are:

A building near Eighth Avenue SW leased by Linn Star Trucking — $7,000 paid in taxes.

A 114-acre farm on County Home Road near the Abbe Center — about $3,000 in taxes.

A number of small properties that Linn Conservation leases out — less than $1,000 a year.

In Johnson County, 47 government- owned properties are on the tax rolls because they are being rented or leased for commercial purposes. Taxes will be paid on a 2007 valuation of $4,611,742.

By Dick Hogan

The Gazette

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