To the Editor,
Do you still believe in Santa? Apparently Jeff Belongia of Hunting Group and some of our county board members do. According to your news article of Sept. 1 they are expecting Santa to bring them a check for $100 million under the Christmas tree on Dec. 25.
Dream on gentlemen. Anyone who believes this is in for a rude awakening when they get their property tax bills in the future.
According to your article Jeff is saying that because of the 17 percent increase in equalized value in the county in 2022 there would be no tax increase. I wish that were true but unfortunately that is not true.
What is true is that Aug. 15, 2022 the Wisconsin Department of Revenue published the 2022 equalized values for the Waushara County which showed a 17 percent increase overall or $529,783,300. Residential properties increased 21 percent or $488,009,200. Only 1 percent of the 21 percent or $23,208,400 was due to new construction.
Properties with new construction are basically the only ones generating new tax dollars. You cannot expect properties with new construction to cover the cost of the county building project. So who then will pay for it? Answer: the rest of the property owners.
It is true that because of the increase in equalized values the tax rate will not need to be changed much but there will be more value to apply the tax rate to. Each town, city, or village in the county has a different actual county tax rate based on their level of assessment as determined by the Department of Revenue. If the value of my home increases $40,000 based on nearby sales that will be included in the Department of Revenue’s calculation.
Since most of the 2022 equalized value increase occurred in the residential class and the residential class level of assessment will likely drop below 90 percent the municipality will need to do a revaluation or take other steps to get into compliance with state statutes regarding level of assessment. This will result in an assessment increase and tax increase for residential property owners.
To say there will be no tax increase from the building project is grossly false and misleading. Should the county continue to work these people who can’t be trusted or don’t understand how taxes are determined? WAushara County paid planners good money to get cost estimates for the construction projects how can they be $27,000,000 off?
What do we do now? The decision has been made and hopefully we will enjoy these buildings in the future and live with the tax increase. It just irks and annoys me when people can’t be honest and true in their statements and attempt to mislead the public.
Sincerely,
/s/Larry Timm, Assessor
Towns of Poy Sippi
and Oasis
