The creation of a permanent Tax Commission (Chap. 380, Laws of 1905) was the cornerstone upon which the state's involvement with the assessment, evaluation, and equalization of real property in Wisconsin is based. In addition to having the authority to investigate and supervise tax administration, the Tax Commission was authorized to begin legal proceedings against any local tax assessor upon receipt of a valid complaint regarding that individual's competence. A major goal of the Tax Commission was to bring assessed values of property in the state closer to their full market value. Commissioner George Curtis opined that “the requirement of the law that assessments shall be made at true value is the most vital thing in the general property tax system.” Chap. 474, laws of 1907 allowed the governing body of any municipality to appeal a county board's equalization of property values to the Tax Commission. The Commission could also hear the complaint of any property owner on the merits of a local property assessment. Requests for revaluation and decisions about conducting reassessments and re-equalizations have been handled either by the Tax Commissioners singly or as a whole, by the State Board of Review, or by officials of the Property Tax Division which was established in 1939 when the Department of taxation replaced the Tax Commission. Appeals from any of these bodies can be taken to the Wisconsin Tax Appeals Commission or to a circuit court.
Many of the earlier reassessment files contain correspondence and transcripts of hearings involving Tax Commissioners Nils Haugen and Charles Rosa whose personal papers are also held by the archives. Haugen (Wis Mss HK), an assemblyman, congressman, and railroad commissioner, was a Governor La Follette appointee who put his reformist stamp on the Tax Commission over the course of several decades. Rosa (Wis Mss VV) was a Progressive Republican who served as a judge in the Beloit municipal court and state assemblyman, as well as being a member of the Tax Commission (1921-1937).
In Wisconsin, property taxes are locally levied and collected, but the Wisconsin Department of Taxation assisted in the administration of the property tax laws. The four major functions of the department relating to property taxes were: 1) The equalization on a full market value basis of the taxable general property in each town, village, city, county, and school district in the state; 2) To make certifications and determinations regarding full values, taxes, and tax credits and to publish the assessed values, full values, and tax rates for towns, villages, cities, and counties; 3) To supervise the administration of the general property tax by local units of government; and 4) To review individual property taxpayers' property assessment appeals and, where warranted, to order an adjustment; to review petitions for reassessment and, where warranted, to order a reassessment or a supervised assessment for the district.
