Casting a hopeful promise for better service at a reasonable cost in the delivery of property assessments, Department of Revenue Secretary Roger Ervin addressed a skeptical audience about the benefits of county-wide property assessment.
Ervin told an audience of elected officials, attorneys, assessors, and local citizens on a January 6 town hall meeting at the Waukesha County Technical College that the Department of Revenue must standardize and consolidate property assessments throughout the state more efficiently. In his estimation, the data currently collected across the state does not necessarily reflect the true picture of property valuations and the owners may not be fairly taxed.
His plea for a multi-jurisdictional consortium to reduce assessment districts alleges that current local municipal valuations do not fairly match similar properties in other regions, assessors interpret property data differently and inconsistently, and the boards of review throughout the 1,851 assessment districts often fail to enforce equitable judgements. The inequalities in the data are said to overwhelm the information processing capabilities at the state level which leads to delays and errors for computing local government taxes.
“We think that there is something different that we can do to provide the taxpayers with better information about their properties,” said Ervin. “People are investing in assets with little or no idea of their liabilities. Why would we not put the taxpayer at ease by providing accurate information?”
Several audience members seemed to agree with Ervin that the present system of property assessment needed repair. One City of Oconomowoc resident complained that his property assessment and consequent taxes in another county increased by 45 percent without any explanation or concern by the local officials. “I don’t think that property valuations are being conducted fairly. The taxes for my surrounding neighbors went down while mine went up.”
Other municipal officials expressed concerns that assessors “give away the store” by lowering assessments at board of review hearings to avoid complaints.
Several more protested that county or regional property assessment would take away control by the local government to fairly appraise and enforce the value and consequent tax liability of property within its boundaries. “Our assessor is accurate and is as best as they come. We are happy with what we have,” said Chairwoman Linda Valentine on behalf of the Town of Salem in Kenosha County.
One Town of Delafield supervisor added, “Our computer software does its job well. Now you are telling us that a new software will fix things when it doesn’t need to be fixed. And it will cost more.”
Another person from West Allis warned that, “now is not the time to increase costs with all of the other financial burdens that municipalities are experiencing. And who is to say that the county will be more efficient with say, 900,000 people as it is likely to happen in Southeast Wisconsin?”
Overall, the audience questioned whether the state and counties could pull it off. How would the system unify larger entities that would now number in the hundreds of thousands of property owners? Could properties be evaluated in as timely a manner and as effectively as they are being done now? How much more will this system cost and who is going to pay for it? What level of certification will the assessor’s have in the new system and how much different is that from the present? Will a consolidated board of review be able to handle the workload of a super-sized assessment district?
Ervin responded that these listening sessions were valuable for helping the DOR focus on improving the way property assessments ought to be handled. “We are holding many meetings with major associations throughout the state and accepting citizen input at our website. People can also contact me personally by telephone or e-mail.”
For DOR contact information on county-wide property assessment see the following link: <http://www.dor.state.wi.us/faqs/ise/address.html> DOR Secretary Roger Ervin can be contacted at: (608) 266-9758.
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