Boom: Janesville City-Wide Tax Assessment Hammers Homeowners and Renters

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When Forward Janesville lobby operators said Janesville residents must accept increased tax obligations, they weren't joking.

The preliminary numbers from the city's property tax re-valuation look extremely bleak for homeowners and renters in Janesville.



Folks, I'm not talking about tax rates, TIF Districts or the effects from Dark Store loopholes here. I'm focusing strictly on the share of the total cost paid by residential property taxpayers into the General Fund VERSUS commercial and manufacturing property to run local government and schools in Janesville. A three point shift might not seem like a lot at first glance, but this is a massive shift of tax burden on residential property taxpayers taking place in just one year's time - from 2018 to 2019.

If you understood how the Dark Store loophole works and the adverse effects it had on your tax bill and voted to close it in last year's county-wide advisory referendum, think of this tax shift from the city-wide re-val in the same way - but MUCH MUCH larger - like a dark store tax shift on steroids. Put it this way, when Janesville paid $850K in dark store refunds during 2017, that payout represented about one-half of one percent tax burden shift from business to residential. And, it drove us to a referendum!!

City of Janesville Facebook post:
The City completed a city-wide revaluation this year. Revaluations are revenue neutral, and redistribute each property owner’s share of the total tax to be collected based on fair market values. This redistribution is driven by the average assessment change, which for 2019 is 25%. Property owners whose assessment change reflects the average change of 25% should expect to pay about the same in property taxes. Property owners whose assessment change is above the average should expect to pay more in property taxes. Properties below the average assessment change should expect to pay less in property taxes.

Notice how the city references only the average assessment increase of 25% and the general term, "property owners."

Make no mistake, residential properties assessed value increased an average 31% in that 25% field and comprised roughly 69% of assessed value taxable in 2018. For 2019, the burden increases to 72%. That means regardless of all other factors including the tax rate, unless the city gains a $6M windfall and uses it for tax relief or cuts its budget by 10%, residential property owners will pay noticeably more in taxes on the next bill. Commercial, retail and manufacturing properties will pay relatively less.

Clearly, the city-wide re-valuation is not revenue neutral or tax burden neutral for homeowners. An increase in our home's assessed value should not equal a sudden increase in our share of the tax burden. If after shoveling millions of tax dollars into commercial developments and business properties results in less value and fewer taxable assets sharing the burden, perhaps it's time to rethink growth strategies and shrink local budgets accordingly. Because whatever it is city leaders are doing - it failed.

SOURCE: 2018 municipal assessed values were gleaned from Wisconsin Revenue