Oshkosh’s commercial properties were significantly undervalued, leaving residents with ‘an inequitable share’ of the 2025 property tax pie.
OSHKOSH – Common council is trying to avoid a repeat of the situation that led to this year’s spike in property taxes.
Oshkosh is requesting the state legislature allow the city and other municipalities to revert to previous property valuations in cases where revaluations result in huge disparities between commercial and residential property values.
City council unanimously passed the resolution during the Feb. 25 common council meeting after the city’s commercial properties were significantly undervalued, leaving residents with “an inequitable share” of the 2025 property tax pie.
“We asked the state if we could go back to 2023 numbers and they told us no, it’s not allowed under state law. So, what this resolution does is, first, ask us if something is inequitable in terms of a revaluation to go back to the previous year’s numbers,” explained council member DJ Nichols, who drafted the resolution.
“Then, alternatively, if that is too blanket of an issue for the state legislature, to allow us to delay the implementation of the new values for two years so we actually have time to make up [the gap].”
The situation initially arose as Oshkosh didn’t conduct regular property evaluations while state law requires that assessments are within 10% of the full property value in a five-year range.
According to then-City Manager Mark Rohloff, Oshkosh’s values were below 70% of that fair market value last year, forcing the city’s assessor’s office to conduct a revaluation.
The combined assessed value of residential properties increased by 53% and the Department of Revenue found the new values to be compliant at 101% of the estimated full market value.
The city hired an outside firm to reassess commercial properties, but the DOR determined those assessed values were only around 85% of their full market value. State law prohibits the use of old values following a revaluation.
“We knew the assessments we had were wrong, but what’s the problem with using the old wrong assessments versus the new wrong assessments?” questioned council member Paul Esslinger.
“It’s time for our representatives in the state to start listening to us because sometimes we actually know what we’re talking about, and they can help us out.”
Common council lowered the tax rate and levy in an attempt to minimize the impact, but most homeowners still saw significant increases in their 2025 property tax bills.
“If this rule were in effect today and the council had reduced the levy like we did in 2024, everyone’s property taxes would have gone down,” Nichols said.
The sudden property tax hike wasn’t peculiar to Oshkosh, as some residents in West Allis saw a 70% rise in assessed property value last year after the city didn’t do property evaluations in a decade.
As a result, many West Allis homeowners were hit with significantly higher tax bills.
Wisconsin biennial budgets run on odd-numbered years, and Nichols said he hopes state senators Kristin Dassler-Alfheim and Rachael Cabral-Guevara and state representatives Nate Gustafson and Lori Palmeri would all support this resolution being including in this year’s bill.
Emails to Gustafson were not immediately returned and Palmeri said she needed more time to look through the resolution.
Contact Justin Marville at jmarville@gannett.com and follow him on X (formerly Twitter) at @justinmarville.