By Dave Fidlin
Correspondent
Union Grove is joining a chorus of communities, asking state lawmakers to stiffen regulations that enable big box and other chain retailers to seek lower assessments for their business buildings.
A number of municipalities across the region have been adopted so-called dark stores ordinances, referring to the strategies several prominent chains have taken in recent years to seek lower assessments, particularly in instances where a vacant retail property is near an active one.
The village’s resolution has been dubbed, “Close loopholes that shift a greater property tax burden from commercial to residential homeowners.”
It takes aim at some of the strategies chain-based big box retailers have adopted to trim their properties’ assessed values and, consequently, pay less in municipal taxes.
The document, approved by the Village Board on Monday, puts Union Grove on record in seeking reform to current legislation.
One passage in the village’s ordinance suggests a “carefully orchestrated wave of hundreds of lawsuits in Wisconsin is forcing assessors to slash the market value of thriving national retail stores, shifting their tax burden to local mom-and-pop shops and homeowners.”
The resolution also calls on Gov. Scott Walker and state lawmakers in both branches to tighten the parameters that have given the chain stores the ability to seek lower assessments, particularly if a vacant retail property is nearby an active one.
The village’s Plan Commission reviewed the ordinance when it was still in a draft state and sent it forward to the Village Board with a ringing endorsement.
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