CITY OF COLUMBUS - ADOPTED 2019 BUDGET DOCUMENT

The City has multiple funds that it creates budgets for each year and those funds are mainly driven by specific needs or functions.  New this year is the Executive Summary which is a nice recap of the budget and provides a "shorter" version to read through.   Please feel free to email me if, after reading through these documents, you have any questions or comments.  I will be more than happy to answer what I can.

ADOPTED CITY OF COLUMBUS 2019 BUDGET

SUMMARY OF 2019 BUDGET

2019 NEWSLETTER

COMPARING 2018 TAXING RATES WITH OTHERS AROUND COLUMBUS

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 - SEPTEMBER 2018 TO JUNE 2019

Home sales in Columbus remain consistent through June of 2019.  The report show those properties the city received for information on prior to sale (utility bill due, special assessment, etc.):

PROPERTY SALES 09-01-2018 TO 06-15-2019

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.

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  

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 - TAX BILLS 2018

PAY TAXES

COMPARING TAX RATES 2017

2009 through 2018 Tax Rates - All Taxing Entities

COLUMBUS - ASSESSED VALUES 2005-2017