SUMMARY

Under Wisconsin’s use value law, property taxes on agricultural land are assessed based on agricultural productivity, rather than full market value. In a sample of 14 municipalities, we identified more than 6,300 agricultural acres that were zoned for non-agricultural purposes. If that land had been assessed at market value, its owners would have owed an estimated $4.7 million in additional property taxes in 2009, while the tax liability of other property owners would have been reduced by the same amount.