PLATTEVILLE, Sept. 9 — For the fourth time in nine years, the City of Platteville will be reassessing property within the city beginning Monday.
The reassessment will not affect property tax bills that will be mailed later this year; it will affect property tax bills mailed in late 2027 and due for payment in early 2028.
“The City’s upcoming revaluation is being conducted to update property assessments so they reflect current market value and maintain uniformity among properties within the municipality,” said Mark Brown of Associated Appraisal Consultants, which is conducting the reassessment. “Wisconsin law requires periodic revaluations because assessed values remain unchanged between revaluations while the real estate market continues to change, and property values do not all change at the same rate.”
State law requires that assessed values must reach full value at least once during a five-year period, Brown said.
The full revaluation will be the first complete reassessment of property since 2019, after Interim Market Update recalculations in 2022 and 2024.
Reassessments are required by state law when the difference between assessed value and fair-market value, based on property sales, exceeds 10 percent in either direction.
The last complete city reassessment was conducted by Accurate Appraisal LLC in 2019.
The last mid-cycle adjustment — in which property is reassessed based on property sales instead of physical inspections of property — was in 2024, when residential property values increased 14.7 percent and commercial property values increased 48.5 percent.
That was on top of a mid-cycle reassessment in 2022 after statewide property values increased 8.3 percent between 2019 and 2021. But in 2022 property values increased 12 percent according to the state Department of Revenue.
“An increase in a property’s assessment does not necessarily mean a corresponding increase in that property’s tax bill,” said Brown. “What matters is how that property’s value changes relative to other properties within the municipality. A property whose value increases more than the overall change may bear a larger share of the tax levy, while a property whose value increases less than the overall change may bear a smaller share.
:One practical point for property owners is that applying the current tax rate to a new assessment will not provide a reliable estimate of future property taxes. Tax rates cannot be determined until assessments are finalized and the various taxing jurisdictions adopt their budgets and establish their levies.”
A property tax bill is determined by multiplying the mil rate for the city, Grant County, Platteville School District and Southwest Tech into a property’s assessed value, minus state property tax credits. Mil rates are determined by dividing the city’s, county’s, school district’s or Southwest Tech property tax levy into the total taxable property value of the city, county, school district or Southwest Tech district. Tax levies are determined by city, county, school district or Southwest Tech spending minus other revenue including state or federal aid divided by taxable property.
The assessment process — which will be conducted by staff with photo ID and a letter of introduction driving vehicles with Associated Appraisal livery —involves exterior reviews and a request for brief interior inspections of residential, commercial and other table properties. A city news release said the interior inspections allow assessors to verify property characteristics, quality, condition and improvements not visible from the outside.
If no one is available when a property exterior is inspected, a door hanger will be left with instructions on how to schedule an interior review. The city is encouraging rental owners to inform tenants that assessors will be visiting the property.
Final property values as of Jan. 1 will be set next summer. Property owners will get notice of new assessments by next September. The city Board of Review, which hears assessment appeals, will meet in October 2027.
