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Town-Wide Review of Sevastopol Property Assessments Pending

The Town of Sevastopol is due for a revaluation: a town-wide review of all property assessments. It’s been 16 years since the town’s last one.

“We obviously need to do it,” said town board chair Dan Woelfel during the town’s Aug. 15 meeting, when a revaluation was on the agenda for discussion. 

Revaluation, according to the Wisconsin Department of Revenue, generally means placing new values on all taxable property for the purpose of a new assessment. The intended result is that all property owners receive uniform and fair assessments and pay their fair share of property taxes.

State law requires municipalities to have revaluations done to keep assessments current with prevailing market conditions. “Current” basically means within 10% of full value. This year was the second year when the town was not in compliance with that 10% threshold. The Department of Revenue issues an order for supervised assessment after six consecutive years of noncompliance.

“If we don’t do this before 2026, the state will come in and do it for us,” Woelfel said.

Revaluations are not cheap, and there are a couple of ways to go about it. To do a full assessment, which means interior and exterior property assessments, the cost would be $143,000. The exterior-only option would be $126,000. 

The town has been saving annually for a revaluation and has close to $120,000 already put away for it. Woelfel said the only question is whether it should be done next year or in 2024.

The board deferred that decision until its Sept. 19 meeting.