By GENE KEMMETER
of The Gazette
Portage County had one of the lowest growths in equalized property valuation in Wisconsin for 2002.
In fact, only 10 counties had a lower growth rate than Portage, which had a 3.6 percent increase.
"This is the lowest we've had in eleven years," said Bo DeDeker, county finance director, indicating the increase was 2.5 percent in 1992. "The 1980s also had some weak years," he added.
Portage County's equalized valuation went from $3,436,500,000 to $3,560,000,000, well below the state average of 7.3 percent.
One of the reasons for the decline is the town of Plover, where valuation of agricultural land went down 48 percent and manufacturing land went down 70 percent. The town's equalized valuation went down 14.6 percent, from $180,169,000 in 2001 to $153,867,000.
"They (the Wisconsin Department of Revenue) wrote down a business so the town lost $31 million," DeDeker said. "That's a large chunk."
Three large businesses are located in the town, McCain Foods USA Inc., Basic American Foods and Thermacold, but DeDeker said officials don't know what was devalued. "We won't find out until November, or even why."
As far as the agricultural reduction, he said that had been anticipated, although not quite with the effect that came in the town of Plover. Agricultural land is supposed to be valued on its use, and in the past agricultural land may have been valued at $400 per acre but the farm use value is about $200.
Another reason for the low increase, DeDeker said, is the housing market. The equalized valuation is based on property sales within the past year, and he said housing values apparently didn't go up like other years.
"Property sales weren't as high," he said, "and building permits were down.
The biggest property valuation increase in the county was in the town of Alban, which showed a 9.98 percent increase over the 2001 amount.
The next largest were 8.06 percent in the town of Hull, 7.73 in the town of Sharon, 6.92 in the town of Linwood, 6.66 in the town of New Hope, 6.63 in the village of Park Ridge, 6.62 in the town of Stockton, 6.47 in the town of Amherst and 5.62 in the town of Eau Pleine.
Those were the only municipalities in the county with increases above 5 percent.
Two other municipalities beside the town of Plover showed a decrease in valuation, the village of Junction City at 2.8 percent and the town of Almond at 1.9 percent.
The city of Stevens Point was just below the 5 percent mark at 4.95 percent, increasing the city's share of county taxes by 1.3 percent, from 33.195 percent to 33.628 percent, more than one-third.
The city's valuation went from $1,140,744,700 to $1,197,238,900, and Stevens Point Mayor Gary Wescott characterized the increase as a sign of steady growth for the city.
The village of Plover, a strong indicator of growth for more than a decade, showed a modest valuation growth of 2.93 percent, from $557,628,200 to $573,976,700.
DeDeker said the county's low increase will have an impact of about $400,000 on the county's 2003 budget because the county's tax rate is tied to its valuation and the percentage of increase.
"We were already in the mode of downsizing county government," he said, indicating that salaries would remain as agreed upon but the county would cut back on everything else.
"We thought we might have a good equalized (increase) this year and then bank some because of the loss of shared revenues next year. If we had a 5 percent increase, we could have banked about $400,000," he said.
The county expects to lose about $600,000 in shared revenues next year. "That means we will have to do some cutting. We were hoping to have some way to offset the loss in shared revenues."