By Kevin Boneske
Staff Writer
HOWARD – A difference of nearly $6.5 million exists between what the Woodman’s store at 2400 Duck Creek Parkway has been assessed and what the company claims it is worth.
The Howard village board received an update of the pending litigation Woodman’s is involved with against the village when it met in closed session Monday, Sept. 24, said Chris Haltom, director of administrative services.
In court documents alleging Woodman’s is entitled to a refund because of excessive real estate taxes, the company claims the 2018 value of the property, where it is a tenant and responsible for paying the taxes, is no more than $5.25 million.
However, the 2018 property value was assessed by the village at $11,743,300.
Woodman’s filed an objection to the 2018 assessment with the village’s Board of Review and requested to waive the hearing, which the board approved to be heard in court with the company’s 2017 appeal also pending in Brown County Circuit Court.
Village Administrator Paul Evert, who noted he participated late last month in a mediation session intended to settle the dispute with Woodman’s prior to going to trial, said the property tax refund the company is seeking totals more than $200,000 for both years combined.
In addition to claiming the tax imposed on the property is excessive, Woodman’s also alleges through its attorneys with the Milwaukee-based law firm of Gimbel, Reilly, Guerin and Brown LLP that the 2018 assessment was not uniform with the assessment of other properties in the village and the state, thereby violating the Uniformity Clause of the Wisconsin Constitution.
Along with seeking a refund of all property taxes it alleges are excessive, Woodman’s is asking to be awarded all litigation costs incurred by the company and any other relief the court would deem appropriate.
In response to the action filed by Woodman’s, the village, represented by attorneys from Stafford Rosenbaum LLP in Madison, has denied Woodman’s was subjected to excessive real estate taxes. The village also denies the property’s fair market value is only $5.25 million.
The village has demanded that the complaint filed against it by Woodman’s attorneys be dismissed and that it receive costs, disbursements and attorneys’ fees in defense of the action.
Dark store loophole
This is not the first time the village has been in a legal dispute with a retailer over a property tax assessment.
That was the case with the Menards in Howard when the village was sued by lawyers representing the retailer before the litigation was dismissed in court last year.
Companies have sought throughout the state to get their assessments lowered with what’s known as the dark store loophole, which relates to commercial retailers and manufacturers challenging the assessed value of their properties by claiming they are worth the same or close to the lower assessed value of similar but empty buildings.
Companies which challenged their assessments in court and won have been able to receive a refund with the affected municipalities having to make up the difference with that lost property tax revenue, such as with homeowners having more of the tax burden.
An effort to eliminate the loophole didn’t pass in the last state legislative session that ended this spring.
The League of Wisconsin Municipalities is now keeping the issue in front of candidates running this year for governor and the state legislature with an issue advocacy campaign funded by itself and member municipalities.
That included $2,000 contributed by the village of Howard.