Off the Editor’s Desk 12-28-2022

OMG! OMG!

O’ My God, how could the property taxes on my house go up 45 percent without me doing any improvements to the home?

I was shocked when I got the tax bill last week. During the year I received a card from our local assessor that a re-value was in the process and I did get a notice that they changed the assessment on my home on Maple Street from $135,600 to $287,000.

That house was built in 1912 and we purchased it from the estate of the original owners in 1968 for $10,000, and over those many years we have made a number of improvements including an addition.

So that increase in assessed value increased my tax load from $2,787.96 to $4,018.95.

But, what makes me question this tax bill is that my office on Misty Court had almost the same percentage increase in valuation as my home, but the business is assessed by the state and I could not see any difference in that. But, the taxes on the business went down $144.00.

So, I was ready to make a lot of noise about how unfair I was being treated by the tax collector until one of my coffee buddies commented that maybe I was getting by all those years with paying too little in taxes. So I quickly wrote out a check and hand delivered it to the city treasurer. I questioned if I was the first person to pay their taxes and Brandee, the Deputy Clerk/Treasurer, replied that I was. But, she quickly said, “There is no prize for that.”

The only other thing about our tax bill is that the vocational school taxes are on the property tax roll and maybe we should find another avenue for funding the vocational school.

If you drove past the Glenwood City Fire Station on any Tuesday evening during the fall, you might have noticed a vocational school fire training unit in the parking lot as the Northwood Tech College was holding class and training our future firefighters. Those people put in over one hundred hours of training just to pass the recruit training requirements, and I am very appreciative of them for a their effort. Thanks.

People are needed for fire fighting and you can all become a fire fighter, just contact the fire chief in your community about joining the department and making a difference.

I am a vocational school grad, and have a sweet spot in my heart for vocational training and there is a big need for what they do. But, in Wisconsin, the board controlling the vocational training is an appointed board and that needs to be changed to electing those people. Members of almost all other boards in the state are elected. So lets make a change.

So, put on a happy face and pay your taxes.

Thanks for reading!     ~Carlton