WAUSAU, Wis. (WSAU) — A proposal to change tax assessments from Governor Scott Walker has mixed reviews. The change, as proposed in the Walker budget bill, would create countywide tax assessors with the goal of assessing all property of a region more equally. The change would affect all municipalities with less than 39,000 residents. Many cities and towns oppose the plan. The majority of Wausau council members support the change, saying this could be good for Wausau if surrounding municipalities were taxed on property values the way Wausau is.
Nan Giese is the Wausau City Assessor. Along with her crew, Giese handles property assessment and appraisals for Wausau and under contract for Schofield. She strongly believes the change is a bad idea, because it takes away local control, and because contract assessors are more focussed on profit and not getting the details correct. Giese’s opinion is that no contractor could handle all of Marathon County. She says the city would also save the expense of added fees for things like Board of Review. Giese says the three big government organizations are against the change for a good reason. “First of all, we have the Wisconsin League of Municipalities, the Towns Association, and the Counties Association that have voted to oppose this. They are opposing this budget bill as it’s written. Those are three major organizations. They have some knowledge of the process.”
Alderman Keene Winters is in favor of the change, and believes the municipal groups and existing assessors will fight this change. “Those 18-hundred oxs are not going to be gored lightly. They are going to rise up. They’ve taken over the League (of Municipalities). They’ve taken over the Counties Association, and they will lobby the Legislature to kill this proposal and preserve a status quo, a status quo that treats Wausau unfairly.”
Council member Lisa Rasmussen was concerned about getting locked into a bad deal if the contracting assessor couldn’t perform to their expectations, but now supports the change. “I was actually conflicted on this until we talked a little bit about the ability for us to opt out, and I think if any new system doesn’t look like it has the ability to deal with Board of Review, in the way that we want it worked through, or to go to battle with large corporate entities who through their attorneys are getting rich off the communities that cave in out of fear, we certainly could opt out.”
Giese believes the council is making a mistake, and urged them to table the issue for a month to study the issue more thoroughly. “When you go out to buy a car, or buy an appliance, or to buy a house, you just don’t walk by and go, ‘Yeah, I’ll take that one.’ You want to get all of the facts. You want to get all of the details, and tonight, I feel like the facts and the details, well, they didn’t have all of them in front of them.”
Wausau passed the resolution supporting the Governor’s change in assessments.
There are indications that many legislators on both sides of the isle will not support the change. Many other cities are leaning the other way. A Stevens Point committee recommended Monday not to support the assessment changes. Their full city council will vote on it next Monday.
