The Town [electors] approved road work and the building of the new Fire Hall over the course of the past few years. These loans need to be paid off. The Town also needs to do improvements to the Town Hall and there have been some additional costs, so, the Board and the Electors who attended the budget hearing found the levy to be reasonable.

 

Add to that the likelihood that Hortonia will have to pay back Hillshire Farms for the 2007/2008/2009 tax overages (the State, County, School District & Town all share a portion of the refund) and that $280,878 figure starts to pale in spite of the 26% increase.

 

Unfortunately, Hortonia has historically been all over the map in terms of levy increases / decreases. When I look at my own tax bills over the years I see:

 

1.6% decrease - 2001 to 2002

40.8% increase - 2002 to 2003

0.1% decrease - 2003 to 2004

5.0% increase - 2004 to 2005

90.7% increase - 2005 to 2006

10.7% decrease - 2006 to 2007

22.0% decrease - 2007 to 2008

 

Because this is a lousy economy and there are residents who are feeling the pain of these circumstances; having played a major role in crafting the Town's budget, I don't take the 26% increase lightly. I would love to see taxes decreased, but, having said that, as with anything, town folks get what they pay for. Under past budgets that were quite favorable to the electors, things slipped through the cracks leading to roads in need of repair, and records in need of attention - just to mention two items. It used to be difficult for residents to be able to get forms, maps and other documents from their part-time clerk – now all of this is available 24x7x365 from the Town’s web site. All services come at a cost.

 

Since this is my first crack at the budget process as a new clerk, I am a bit defensive about the figures. Nevertheless, under the circumstances, I think the budget (!! CLICK HERE !! for Hortonia's 2010 Budget Summary) is reasonable and in that regard both the electors and the Board approved the levy.

 

Regarding the garbage assessment increases, residents of the Township have steadily increased the amount that goes into the landfill:

 

1999    536.51 tons of garbage sent to the landfill

2000    532.76 tons

2001    634.37 tons

2002    646.11 tons

2003    579.72 tons

2004    630.28 tons

2005    669.18 tons

2006    897.00 tons

2007    850.33 tons

2008    759.86 tons

2009 YTD       708.69 tons of garbage sent to the landfill

 

The trucks that haul the garbage to the landfill have seen significant increases in fuel costs, cost of labor has risen, but the biggest rise for 2010 comes from the state-regulated increase in tipping fees (cost per ton of garbage sent to the landfill).

 

1999    $16.50 Fee per ton of garbage sent to the landfill

2000    $16.50

2001    $18.50

2002    $21.00

2003    $21.00

2004    $21.00

2005    $21.00

2006    $21.00

2007    $23.00 Rate increased to $25.10 on November 1st

2008    $27.10

2009    $28.10 Rate increased to $36.50 on September 1st

2010    $36.50

 

These are the major reasons why the cost went up to $145.59 per residence. Any parcel with multiple residences is assessed for each residence. An audit of garbage pick-ups this Fall uncovered a number of residences that were not paying, but should have been, and that has been corrected on the 2010 tax bills, bringing the cost per residence down from the original figure.

 

Going forward, the State Department of Revenue is pushing for sweeping changes to the way property assessments will be done in Wisconsin citing that the current system is flawed, inequitable, inconsistent with how things are done in other states, etc. The State proposal paints a very rosy picture of how the new changes will leverage economies of scale and create accurate assessments of property, every year.

 

Third parties do not paint such a rosy picture of these sweeping changes, nor do they characterize the current state of property assessments as so flawed and unfair.

 

On that note, I recommend that you take some time to get up to speed on the Wisc. Dept. of Revenue's (DOR) proposed changes. DOR has updated the following County Assessment information at http://www.revenue.wi.gov/html/local.html. An e-mail subscription list is now available for anyone interested in receiving County Assessment information from DOR. Additional County Assessment detail is available at http://www.revenue.wi.gov/news/propchgpropdtl.pdf. The Town Hall meeting PowerPoint is available at http://www.revenue.wi.gov/news/ctyassprop.pdf.

The updated Town Hall meeting schedule is available at http://www.revenue.wi.gov/news/thmtgdec09.pdf.

 

After you read all the material the DOR has provided, check out the WTA - Wisconsin Towns Association's view of these changes and the WAAO's - Wisconsin Association of Assessing Officers.