Local Government and Property Taxes

Local special purpose districts (SPDs) are created to carry out a single function. Despite their limited scope, SPDs can have a sizable impact on individuals, communities, and entire regions. Wisconsin currently has over 1,100 SPDs. Examples of SPDs in Wisconsin include metropolitan sewerage districts [ch. 200, Stats.], town sanitary districts [subch. IX, ch. 60, Stats.], drainage districts [ch. 88, Stats.], mosquito control districts [s. 59.70 (12) to (16), Stats.], regional planning districts [s. 66.0309. Stats.], and inland land protection and rehabilitation districts [subch. IV, ch. 33, Stats.]. This issue brief provides an overview of those districts and their creation, dissolution, membership, powers, and duties.

The governmental immunity statute confers immunity for intentional torts and discretionary acts on units of government and their officers. Section 893.80, Stats., sets forth the general principles of governmental immunity in Wisconsin, including notice requirements, immunity for intentional and discretionary acts, and limits on damages. This information memorandum describes the historical development of the immunity defense and discusses current law on governmental immunity in Wisconsin, including exceptions to immunity established in case law.

Tax incremental financing (TIF) is a tool often used by municipalities to spur economic development. TIF allows municipalities to pay for public improvements and development incentives within a defined, contiguous geographic area of the municipality – a tax incremental district (TID) – using the future taxes collected on the district’s increased property value. The rationale behind a TID is that a municipality’s public expenditures will encourage development, along with increased property value that would not have otherwise occurred. This issue brief will provide an overview of the lifecycle of a TID under Wisconsin’s TIF law, s. 66.1105, Stats.

Home rule power is the ability of a political subdivision to determine its local affairs and government. The source, scope, and legal analysis of a political subdivision’s home rule power depend on the political subdivision’s type. However, in practice, because courts have interpreted constitutional home rule power narrowly, home rule cases primarily focus on home rule powers found in statute. These cases focus on whether a state statute preempts a local regulation because the regulations conflict. This issue brief summarizes the history of municipal home rule and the law related to municipal and county home rule, including the analysis used when these powers are challenged.

Municipal boundaries define the physical divisions between municipalities and represent legal distinctions that organize how municipalities relate to each other and to their residents. Shifting boundary lines through an annexation, consolidation, detachment, or agreement, or changing the legal significance of an existing boundary through incorporation, modifies the rights and responsibilities in the relationship between municipalities and their residents and between municipalities themselves. This information memorandum provides an overview of state laws governing the establishment of municipal boundaries and the methods of changing them.

Direct democracy is a form of governance where citizens use powers normally associated with a representative legislative body, such as the Legislature or a city’s common council. Forms of direct democracy include elector initiatives, which allow qualified electors to create and vote on specific laws, and referenda, which generally are binding or advisory questions that voters answer at the ballot box.

Wisconsin, unlike 24 other states, does not have a statewide initiative process. Wisconsin law has never allowed state-level elector initiatives, but previously allowed county-level initiatives, and currently allows for certain elector initiatives at the municipal and school board level. Referenda are allowed or required for certain issues at the state, county, and municipal level as well as in many types of local districts.

Any city, village, or town with a fire department is eligible to receive a portion of the fire insurance premiums collected by insurers doing business in Wisconsin, commonly known as the 2% fire dues program.

Wisconsin law offers considerable opportunity for voluntary cooperation at the local government level. In addition to the general cooperation provisions summarized below, other statutes contain authority for counties, towns, villages, and cities to cooperate in specific areas, such as police and fire protection and library services.