TAX - WISCONSIN

Wisconsin Property Taxpayers, Inc. v. Town of Buchanan

Supreme Court of Wisconsin - June 29, 2023 - N.W.2d - 2023 WI 58 - 2023 WL 4278324

Plaintiff brought action for declaratory and injunctive relief from “transportation utility fee” that town imposed to fund its transportation utility district.

The Circuit Court entered summary judgment for plaintiff, finding that the fee was a property tax subject to the town’s levy limit, and permanently enjoining the town from levying, enforcing, or collecting the fee in any amount above its levy limit.

Town appealed, and the parties filed a joint petition for bypass of the Court of Appeals, which the Supreme Court granted.

The Supreme Court held that:

When imposing “transportation utility fee” to fund its transportation utility district, which was fee that constituted property tax, town could not base fee on class of property and its commercial characteristics; statute allowing certain municipalities to set up utility districts and to fund them through “taxation of property” did not authorize such taxation to be based on anything other than property value.

State property-tax law precluded town from imposing on tax-exempt properties its “transportation utility fee,” which was fee that town used fund its transportation utility district and that constituted property tax.

“Transportation utility fee” that town imposed to fund its transportation utility district, which fee constituted property tax, counted against town’s levy limit as set by state law; despite argument that utility district had assumed responsibility for public improvement, town itself levied taxes to fund district.



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