5 Things To Keep in Mind on Janesville Property Reassessment

If you are a property owner in the City of Janesville, you should have received your new statement on re-assessment.  As you look at it, please keep 5 things in mind:

1.  Reassessment is revenue-neutral.  The City of Janesville collects no new taxes through the reassessment.  In fact, taxpayer money is spent to conduct this procedure.

2.  Reassessment is being done to equalize the property tax burden.  That means that some property owners will pay more but others will pay less.

3.  This Reassessment was mandated by the State of Wisconsin.  City Council already made the decision to reassess only commercial properties, where values were particularly not reflective of the market values, but the State of Wisconsin required Janesville to conduct reassessment for both residential and commercial properties.

4. Values of commercial properties in Janesville were indeed undervalued and therefore through reassessment, commercial property values in Janesville increased by an average of 27%.  Values of residential properties in Janesville went up by 6%.  Because there are more residential properties in Janesville than commercial, all properties in Janesville - residential and commercial combined - by increased an average of 12%

5. Reassessment statement which all Janesville property owners received in the mail is missing one vital number - how much our property taxes are likely to change.  In order to determine that number (approximation still, but very close) please follow this link to a city calculator website.

http://www.ci.janesville.wi.us/scorecard2011/Illustrative%20Tax%20Calculator.htm