By Stephanie Brien
Journal Times | Posted: Monday, December 29, 2008 12:00 am
RACINE COUNTY - Residents in Waterford and Rochester are practically neighbors, but their property tax rates are nowhere near each other.
In fact, the Village of Waterford's 2008 tax rate, the highest in the county, is nearly double the rate of one of the Town of Rochester's districts.
With a rate of $13.70 per $1,000 of assessed property, the Rochester district is the lowest tax rate in the county, according to Pat Harmann, the Racine County real property lister.
The Town of Rochester has several districts with varying property tax rates. But the very lowest in the county is Rochester district, which is part of the Burlington School District and is not part of a lake district.
That means that for $100,000 of assessed property, residents in that district pay $1,370.
The taxes include money that is sent to the county, Gateway Technical College, the state, the local school district and the municipality itself. That is more than $1,000 less than the Village of Waterford, which is on the other end of the spectrum - the highest in the county.
Waterford's rate of $24.02 is equivalent to $2,402 for every $100,000 of assessed property, according to the list of tax rates from Racine County. But the tax rate doesn't always tell the full story. When municipalities have not been reassessed for a while, the tax rates start to go up, said Waterford Treasurer Lori
Peternell.
For instance Waterford has not done reassessments since 2003, she said. That means that unless people made improvements on their homes, they are still paying the market price for 2003. The next assessment will be 2010, she said.
On the other hand, Rochester was last assessed in 2007, Peternell said. So even though residents are paying a higher tax rate, they are not necessarily paying more.
Peternell, who lives in the Village of Rochester, bought her house in 1996 for $120,000. After the reassessment, it jumped to $196,000. The rate dropped, but her tax bill went up.