Black Hawk County treasurer warns revenue mix will shift after auto-title law change

Black Hawk County Treasurer Linda Hintzman told the Board of Supervisors during a Jan. 28 budget work session that the county expects a notable increase in auto-registration revenue this year after a recent change in Iowa law, while other revenue streams tied to tax sales and parking fines are projected to decline.

Hintzman, the county treasurer, said the county mailed 70,173 real-estate tax statements this year and processed 38,090 title transfers. “This year, our tax sale bidders, we had 3,203 bidders at our annual tax sale. We offered 1,132 parcels,” she said. She told the board 122 parcels did not sell at the tax sale.

The nut graf: county officials said the auto-registration windfall is tied to a change in Iowa Code 321 that allows some vehicle titling and registration transactions to occur in counties other than a registrant’s home county, while other fee-based revenue is falling because the treasurer’s office has reduced some administrative charges to avoid showing a profit on tax-sale activity.

Hintzman said the treasurer’s office reduced the registration sign-up fee for private tax-sale bidders from $50 to $30 and noted “per Iowa code, we are not to show a profit when we’re holding our tax sale.” That operational change reduces the tax-sale fee revenue line. Separately, the treasurer said parking fine revenue in the general fund is expected to drop sharply—by roughly 90 percent in the current estimate—because fewer parking tickets are being issued in county lots.

On auto revenue, Hintzman described the statewide change (Iowa Code chapter 321 provisions enacted in late 2024) that added $10 to certain vehicle service fees — including initial title fees and replacement title fees — and allowed some titling work to be performed in any Iowa county. “With this change, we are projecting an increase in our auto revenues,” she said, adding the office already sees higher receipts since Jan. 1.

Board members pressed Hintzman on the reliability of interest income projections for county investments. Hintzman said CD and money-market yields have fallen recently, and she deferred to county analysts on the precise forecast: “We don’t know what’s gonna happen,” she said, noting the county’s interest receipts exceeded budget last year but that near-term rates have softened.

Hintzman also described operational changes in the treasurer’s office: a kiosk-style waiting system implemented in January that she said reduced lobby congestion, continued work to add an online appointment option, and a personnel proposal to create a Motor Vehicle Title/Registration Technician I and II to provide career steps and address rising title-fraud workload. She said the proposed step increase would be a 5% raise for the higher technician level and would not add a net new position but would formalize a two-tier technician structure.

Ending: Hintzman told supervisors the treasurer’s office at present is “running pretty lean” and that budget numbers presented reflect conservative estimates where uncertainty exists, especially for interest income and the effect of ARPA-funded projects on cash balances.

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