UPDATE ON TAX BILLS

Tax bills will arrive shortly.  The report below is an alphabetical listing of the properties in the City and their tax bill amounts.  

2019 TAX BILLS - ALPHABETICAL LIST OF PROPERTY 

CITY OF COLUMBUS - 2020 ADOPTED BUDGET

The City has multiple funds that it creates budgets for each year and those funds are mainly driven by specific needs or functions.  Council and staff have worked hard to bring a proposed 2020 budget forward.  The public hearing was held on December 2, 2019 at which time the Council reviewed and adopted the 2020 budget.

CITY OF COLUMBUS 2020 ADOPTED BUDGETS - ALL FUNDS

COLUMBIA COUNTY WEBSITE UPDATED

Recently Columbia County updated their website so the process, while similar, to view your property's information has changed slightly.  See below for a set of step by step instructions.  If you have any questions on how to get to the site or if a step isn't working, please don't hesitate to call me or send me an email.

COLUMBIA COUNTY WEBSITE - STEPS TO SEE PARCEL INFORMATION

HOME SALES - JANUARY 2019 THRU NOVEMBER 2019

For a complete listing of sales in the City you can go to the Columbia County web page and under "Tax Parcel Data Search" choose the option for searching the sales history.  Questions on how to view this report, please feel free to call our office and we will help walk you through the steps.

Columbia County Report on Sales - January 2019 - November 2019

Sales recorded so far reflect total sale prices of $19,777,475 vs the assessed values of $17,210,060.  A difference of $2,567,415 meaning that assessed values differ by 14.9% from actual real life sales.  

SEWER RATE STUDY RESULTS

The Sewer Utility completed a review of its current rates in October of 2017. Rates for the Sewer Utility have not changed since 2008 in the City.  With increased costs of maintenance, operations and the larger projects being done each year to replace older infrastructure the Utility reviews its rates to determine if it is making ends meet for the day to day operations and debt payments of the Utility.  What the study found was that a 4% rate increase would be recommended for users of the system.

Sewer Utility Rates Effective 04-01-2018

Below is a cover letter which gives an overview of the recommendations coming from the City's audit firm and then the full rate study for further information on how the change was arrived at.  A chart of how the rates would change is also shown below under "Sewer Utility - Proposed 2018 Rates".  The Council has reviewed this with the audit firm who completed the study and will be taking this to the regular meeting of the Council on February 20th to consider action.  

COVER LETTER - SEWER RATE STUDY

SEWER RATE STUDY

WORK PERMITS

Occasionally city staff are unavailable to issue work permits, please refer to the below link for alternate locations - remember to call locations first for availability!  WORK PERMIT NOTICE

2018 STREET PROJECT - SPECIAL ASSESSMENTS REPORT

The City Council approved special assessments for the properties along the 2018 street project mainly Water and School Streets. The final amounts of special assessments is determined by the "as built" quantities and prices.

FINAL SPECIAL ASSESSMENTS - 2018 STREET PROJECTS

SPECIAL ASSESSMENTS - HOW DO THEY WORK?

At this time special assessments on any city project can be paid in basically two ways - in full before the tax roll information is due to the Columbia County Treasurer's office or by installments.  Those installments are based on the amount of special assessments a property receives.

$1.00 TO $2,000.00 – 5 YEAR REPAYMENT

$2,001.00 TO $6,999.00 – 10 YEAR REPAYMENT

$7,000.00 TO $9,999.00 – 15 YEAR REPAYMENT

$10,000.00 AND OVER – 20 YEAR REPAYMENT

The interest rate is based on the interest rate the City is paying back on the debt/loan it has taken out to do a project plus 1%.   A property owner can make payments throughout the year as well to lessen the amount being placed on the tax bill or payoff a current year's assessment so nothing appears on the tax bill. 

For more questions, please feel free to email me.

TAX COLLECTIONS  

Tax bills should be in the mail this week.  The newsletter below has office hours for tax collections at City Hall and other options availalbe to make your tax payments.  For your added convenience remember FARMERS & MERCHANTS UNION BANK can take your payment - right at the drive through!  You don't even need to get out of your car!  They do ask that you have your tax bill or stubb with your check to ensure they apply your payment correctly.

Dog licenses should be paid by separate check - fees remain the same at $10 for spayed or neutered and $15 if they are not. State law requires dogs to be licensed by April 1st after that date a $5 per dog penalty is applied. 

Per State Statute the City can only accept tax payments in the months of December and January.  If you are paying your taxes after January 31st all payments would go to the County Treasurer at:

Columbia County Treasurer

PO Box 198

Portage, WI 53901 - 0198

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS FOR TAXES

NEWSLETTER - GREAT INFORMATOIN INSIDE! :)

PAY TAXES