The Hamilton Town Board gave a negative assessment to the Wisconsin Department of Revenue’s proposed plan to have county-wide assessors when the town board held its monthly meeting Jan. 12.

According to the revenue department’s proposed plan, the county-wide assessors would help streamline the current property tax system by shrinking 1,851 different municipalities providing their own assessments to 72 assessment districts as a cost saving measure for a state in a deep budget deficit.

Also according to a summary of the plan available online at www.revenue.wi.gov, the plan seeks to “move all assessment functions to the county level within five years; require annual full valuation, starting with a revaluation of all parcels within three years; allow towns, villages and cities to have a voice in all assessment functions including administration, assessment and board of review; maintain manufacturing assessment at the state level, but refocus DOR to certify, regulate and audit the county assessment process; create new standards and licensing for property assessors to ensure the highest level of professionalism in the valuation process, and establish a new system of valuation, with minimal long-term fiscal effect.”

For their part, town board members expressed misgivings about the consolidation of towns, cities and villages into one group. The revenue department has estimated that the cost of the county assessment system would be at least $25 per parcel.

According to Town Chairman Richard Schomburg, the city of La Crosse pays about $35 per parcel while the town of Hamilton pays about $5 per parcel and that this shift would be an unfair burden on the smaller communities who would have to “pick up the slack” for larger towns, he said.

“Lots of tax exempt properties in La Crosse,” said town board member Blaine Lee. “And this would help them pay for them.”

The town board also took issue with the lack of control they perceived would happen under the system and the inconvenience to town residents.

“It’d take away local control,” said Schomburg. “You’d lose open book and board of review in the local area.”

According to Jon Labus, a member of the Hamilton’s comprehensive plan committee, this could be a slippery slope for townships.

“First this,” Labus said, “then they could say county-wide school districts and then they could get rid of town boards and say they could do it better.”

“It’s a big sleeping issue that the public doesn’t know about,” said Lee.