421.30 Reassessment expense fund.

1. A reassessment expense fund is created in the office of the treasurer of state for the purpose of providing loans to a city and county conference board for conducting reassessments of property. There is appropriated to the reassessment expense fund from the general fund of the state from any unappropriated funds in the general fund of the state such funds as are necessary to carry out the provisions of this section, section 421.17, subsection 19, and section 441.19, subsection 2, subject to the approval of the director of revenue. Repayment of loans shall be credited to the fund.

2. The director of revenue shall maintain and administer the reassessment expense fund created pursuant to subsection 1.

3. Within sixty days of the receipt of an order of the director to reassess all or part of the property in an assessing jurisdiction, the conference board and assessor of the assessing jurisdiction shall submit to the director a detailed proposal for complying with the order. The proposal shall contain specifications for the completion of the reassessment project, the financial condition of the assessing jurisdiction, and any other information deemed necessary by the director.

4. Each proposal submitted pursuant to subsection 3 shall be reviewed by the director to determine if the proposal will result in compliance with the reassessment order. The director shall approve or disapprove each proposal and shall notify the appropriate conference board and assessor of the decision. If the director determines the proposal will not result in compliance with the reassessment order, the notice shall contain the reasons for the director’s determination and an explanation as to how the proposal shall be corrected in order to be approved by the director.

5. If the notice to the conference board and the assessor states that the director has determined that the proposal will result in compliance with the reassessment order, the conference board may, if it lacks the financial resources to comply in all respects with the reassessment order, file with the director an application for a loan from the reassessment expense fund. The loan to the conference board may be for all or part of the funds required to comply with the reassessment order. The director shall approve, amend and approve, or reject each application and notify the conference board and assessor of its decision. If the application is amended or rejected, the notice shall contain the director’s reasons for the amendment or rejection.

6. Upon the director’s approval of the advancement of funds from the reassessment expense fund, the director shall certify to the appropriate conference board and assessor a schedule for disbursing the loan to the assessing jurisdiction’s assessment expense fund authorized by section 441.16. The schedule shall provide for the disbursement of funds over the period of the reassessment project, except that ten percent of the funds shall not be disbursed until the project is completed. The conference board shall at its next opportunity levy pursuant to section 441.16 sufficient funds for purposes of repaying the loan made from the reassessment expense fund. The amount levied shall be sufficient to repay the loan in semiannual installments during the course of the reappraisal project as specified by a repayment schedule established by the director. The repayment schedule shall provide for repayment of the loan not later than one year following the completion of the reassessment. Semiannual repayments of the proceeds of the loan shall be made on or before December 1 and May 1 of each year.

7. Any reassessment of property ordered by the director, whether or not undertaken with funds provided in this section, shall be conducted by the assessor in accordance with the Iowa real property appraisal manual issued under authority of section 421.17, subsection 17, the assessment laws of this state, and any reassessment order issued by the director under authority of this chapter. The conference board may employ appraisers or other expert help to assist the assessor in completing the reassessment, except that no conference board receiving funds under this section shall enter into a contract for the reassessment of property until the board’s proposal for completing the reassessment is approved. The director shall supervise the conduct of all reassessments of property and issue to the assessor or conference board such instructions, directives, or orders as are necessary to ensure compliance with the provisions of this section and the assessment laws of this state.

8. The assessor of each assessing jurisdiction receiving funds under this section shall submit to the director, in the form and manner prescribed by the director, reports showing the progress of the reassessment. If the director determines that a reassessment undertaken with funds provided in this section is not being conducted in accordance with the proposal submitted pursuant to subsection 3, the director shall notify the appropriate conference board and assessor of the director’s determination. The notice shall contain an explanation as to how the deficiencies in the reassessment may be corrected. If the deficiencies noted by the director are not corrected within sixty days of the date the assessor and conference board are notified of their existence, the director shall suspend payments from the reassessment expense fund until the deficiencies have been corrected.

9. Funds obtained under this section shall be used only to conduct reassessments of property as approved and conducted pursuant to this section.

[C79, 81, §421.30]

86 Acts, ch 1245, §423; 2003 Acts, ch 145, §286; 2012 Acts, ch 1081, §1; 2013 Acts, ch 90, §101