Tim Ryan tryan@wolfrivermedia.com
It’s not on the Shawano Common Council’s plate just yet, but the time could be right for another citywide property revaluation, according to City Administrator Brian Knapp.
“Property values are significantly out of whack,” he said.
The city has been squirreling away about $25,000 a year for a future revaluation, which could take more than a year to carry out and would cost anywhere from $150,000 to $175,000.
“We would have the resources to do that next year if we chose,” Knapp said. “I would recommend it.”
The city’s equalized value dropped from $510 million to just under $508 million this year, according to state figures, while the city’s assessed value dropped by more than $3 million from $514 million to just under $511 million.
Even within those numbers, there are some glaring discrepancies, mainly associated with properties within the Tax Incremental Finance districts.
The city actually saw a $5.1 million increase in the equalized value of TIF district properties, but those gains are not levied for general tax purposes. Instead, any increase in taxes goes to paying off the debt incurred for any infrastructure and other improvements that went into creating the TIF district.
Complicating matters is the fact that assessed values in the city’s TIF districts have not been updated.
Knapp said that’s especially true in the city’s most sprawling TIF district, which runs along East Green Bay Street, and where the sale price of properties is much higher than the value assessed by the city.
“Equalized values have increased in TIF districts, according to the state,” Knapp said, “and assessed values have remained the same.”
The last citywide property revaluation was conducted in 2008-09.