PROPERTY TAXES TOO HIGH, OR TOO FEW PEOPLE PAYING THEM?
Thursday, September 30th, 2010 -- 11:39 AM
As budgets tighten, more people will likely take a closer look at their property tax bill this year.That bill is eating up a larger part of our income. A recent report from the Wisconsin Taxpayer?s Alliance showed almost 5% of our income covers our property taxes.
In Wisconsin, property taxes are levied by the county, municipality, technical college and school district.
Some people are beginning to look at the huge burden shifted to residential property owners in recent years.
The state of Wisconsin has a number of programs that remove property from the tax rolls, or significantly reduce its taxable value.
The [url=http://www.legis.wi.gov/lrb/pubs/wb/03wb3.pdf]Farmland Use Value Assessment law[/url] was implemented in 2002. It provides that farmland be taxed on its ability to produce income from agricultural uses, rather than on its potential market value to developers. The purpose of the law is to slow urban sprawl and allow farmers to keep their land in agricultural production without burdensome taxation.
But, it's also shifted more of the tax burden to residential property taxpayers; the impact is especially great in rural counties like Clark.
Then there are a handful of programs meant to preserve forestland.
The [url=http://dnr.wi.gov/forestry/feeds/faqsFull.asp?s1=ForestTax&s2=MFL&inc=ftax]Managed Forest Law and Forest Crop Law[/url] administered by the DNR take enrolled properties off the tax rolls in exchange for owners following "sound forest management practices." Instead of taxes, property owners pay a per-acre fee of between .67-cents to $8.34 to the state. That money is then divvied up between the state, county and local municipality. School districts receive no payment.
[b]BIG SHIFT[/b]
Take for instance this example from the Town of Sherwood in southern Clark County. According to county records, an absentee landowner there owns 636 acres enrolled in the forest law program. That property is worth just under $1-million. They paid only $998 in taxes last year. If his property wasn?t enrolled in the program, he would have owed $19,593.
Meanwhile, his neighbor owns only 40 acres, and he paid over $1,200 in taxes last year, according to county records.
Clark County has nearly 60,000 acres of privately owned land enrolled in the programs. Obviously, what those property owners don?t pay is shifted to property owners that do.
Some school officials we've talked with say these programs might come under increased scrutiny due to the struggling economy.
We plan to have more on the property tax situation in the next few weeks.
Feel free to contact us with questions and/or comments.