Taxes, taxes, taxes

Nobody enjoys paying taxes, and, we all think they are too high. I am not about to write anything different about those perspectives. But, I'd like to give you an idea of how Indianola's taxes rank in the state.

We typically rank Indianola with cities that have a population of 6,500 and greater, and, there are 62 of those cities. 6,500 population is somewhat arbitrary but when we first started comparing, it was about one half of Indianola's population. Seemed like a good place to start.

Your taxes are made up of 3 primary sources: Schools, County and City. The total tax rate for these entities is $39.16. That tax rate ranks 28th among those 62 cities meaning that Indianola's tax rate is in the lower one half of these cities. Personally I think that is quite good when considering Indianola does not have alot of commercial and industrial tax base.

Indianola's "city" tax rate is $11.65 and ranks 14th among those 62 cities. Again, I think we do very well especially when considering cities like West Des Moines, Coralville and Waukee have a higher tax rate. These are high growth areas with significant commercial and/or industrial tax bases from which to generate revenue.

And, that is another factor to consider. Indianola's tax base per capita ranks 28th among these cities. That means that even with a smaller tax base, we manage to have a lower tax rate than 14 cities with more taxable value.

Again, no one likes to pay taxes, and, we all think taxes are too high. But at least you now know how Indianola's taxes rank in our state.