The change in the taxable valuation of Wild Rose Casino has added countless hours to the workload of Pam Olerich, tax coordinator in the Greene County auditor’s office.
She shared information with the county supervisors at their Feb. 24 meeting. She said she first looked at the valuations that will be used for the FY26 budget (July 1, 2025 – June 30, 2026). She said all affected taxing bodies are aware and are preparing their budgets using those lower valuations.
The agreement with Wild Rose Casino also addresses Assessment Year 2023, which is the property taxes the treasurer’s office is collecting now. Budgets were formulated based on a total valuation that was later decreased, creating a shortfall of $104,081 in the taxes that are due in March.
If the taxing authorities involved – Greene County, Greene County Community Schools, the city of Jefferson, Greene County Medical Center, Greene County Extension, Iowa Central Community College, and the county assessor’s offices – abate taxes due in March in accordance with the new evaluation, the total about to be abated would be $96,462.
Of that, the city of Jefferson has the most to abate at close to $51,239. Olerich has already spoken with the Jefferson city council’s finance committee and city administrator Scott Peterson. They prefer to abate the taxes now and take the loss in the current year, rather than taking a larger shortfall in the next year.
She also explained that all the taxing authorities have to made the adjustment at the same time. Greene County Schools’ deficit is $24,973. That board doesn’t meet until March 12, but Olerich said the school is “leaning toward” preferring to take the loss in revenue this year.
County treasurer Katlynn Mechaelsen assisted Olerich and was able to show the supervisors how each of the county’s funds would be affected. The supervisors’ Feb. 27 agenda includes consideration of abating taxes to deal with the shortfall in the current year.
