Hendricks Not Paying Property Taxes?
The billionaire's Rock County mansion doesn't appear on tax rolls.
Diane Hendricks’ Home on Bing Maps
According to a 2016 Forbes listing, Wisconsin’s Diane Hendricks is the nation’s wealthiest self-made woman, with a net worth of nearly $5 billion. Yet she paid no Wisconsin income tax in the years 2010, 2012, 2013 and 2014, according to a report by Cary Spivak and the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
It appears the Republican supporter and Trump economic adviser also gets a break on the taxes on the 228-acre property consisting of 14 parcels where she lives in the unincorporated community of Afton in the Town of Rock, a mostly rural area between Beloit and Janesville in Rock County, Wisconsin.
The Pitts, LLC., organized after the December 2007 death of Ken Hendricks, Diane’s husband, and sharing an address with the headquarters of ABC Supply, Inc., her family firm, received a $4.2 million Warranty Deed for the property at 4007 W. Eau Claire Rd. in 2009.
Today, the 120-acre main parcel — identified by officials as the residence of Diane Hendricks has an assessed land valuation of only $75,600, or $630 per acre, while four adjacent lots of less than an acre apiece also owned by Hendricks are each assessed at $22,500. This disparity alone raises red flags.
As for improvements on the property, billionaires have been known to spend extravagantly on their properties, and this one is a dandy, with woods, ponds, plazas, pathways and party areas. However, the property assessment compiled by Accurate Appraisal, LLC., with whom the Town of Rock contracts, shows only a modest 1,663-square-foot frame residence on the property, constructed in 1993 and valued at $390,000.
This clearly conflicts with the description of the Hendricks home when a reporter for Forbes Magazine toured the residence in 2010:
Diane Hendricks (is)… transforming a modest rustic home in Afton, Wis. into a 10,000-square-foot dream house–one she’d planned to share with Ken. That hope came to a shattering end in December 2007, when Ken, returning late from a business party, went to check on a new floor above the garage and fell through. Diane found him. He died in the hospital hours later of head trauma.
A Google Earth search of the home’s address also clearly shows a very large home on the rural property.
Hendricks herself has talked about her spread (which apparently is ideal for corporate entertaining) with a reporter from Bloomberg News in a 2015 article entitled “Meet the Billionaire Roofer Behind Scott Walker“:
Hendricks keeps a small herd of deer on the property. ‘I’m in a male-dominated industry,’ says Hendricks, 68, who wears her dark hair long and favors black leather jackets. ‘They like to see deer running by with big antlers.’
On the Map Yet Off the Tax Rolls?
In researching this property for a House Confidential, column, it became clear the descriptions of the home did not match the assessment records. So I checked the neighboring addresses on the Town of Rock website to see if the home might be located at one of them. A 120-acre property might just be the beginning of the Hendricks holdings, and maybe the home itself was on an out-lot. However, this search was unsuccessful, with no property remotely matching the description of the Hendricks home.
On Tuesday, April 18th, I sent an e-mail to Deborah Bennett, the Clerk/Treasurer of the Town of Rock asking her for the parcel number for the Hendricks property. The town hall is located in Afton, about 1,000 feet due south of the Hendricks estate, so I relied on local knowledge to help me out.
“I am having a difficult time sifting through the assessment files of the Town of Rock to find a property that matches the numerous written descriptions of the home of Diane Hendricks. Could you please direct me to the parcel file for the Hendricks home, which is said to be approximately 10,000 s.f.?”
On a Saturday, April 22nd, Bennett replied: “The parcel number for Dian (sic) Hendricks home is 6-17-255.”
This was the same number I had already reviewed, but I entered it into the website and re-checked it: the sub-parcels for that parcel number were all under one acre, including a .76 acre site valued at $100 and registered to the Hendricks Family Cemetery Association, which is presumed to be the burial site of Ken Hendricks. But still no 10,000 square foot home.
I related my findings to Bennett and repeated my request, this time with a photograph of the home, just in case she was not familiar with the most famous property in her community.
I also contacted Accurate Appraisal, LLC.
Accurate does the assessments for over 100 Wisconsin communities, including the Milwaukee suburbs of Brown Deer, Cudahy, Glendale and Shorewood. I contacted the company via e-mail on April 27th, and copying it to the Town of Rock Clerk/Treasurer.
I called the firm the next day, and was told that my request had been sent to “the appropriate party.”
On May 1st, the appropriate party had still not replied to my request, and I e-mailed the firm again. I then received a return all-caps e-mail from the firm’s receptionist:
HELLO MICHAEL – IT IS MY UNDERSTANDING TO BEGIN, THAT YOU NEED TO FILE AN OPEN RECORDS REQUEST WITH THE TOWN OF ROCK. PLEASE CONTACT THEM AND THEY CAN ASSIST WITH THAT. THANK YOU,
Terri Muskevitsch – Receptionist
Since this had already been done, Urban Milwaukee editor Bruce Murphy got involved, and contacted both Deborah Bennett and Accurate Appraisal. Bennett responded on May 3, saying “our attorney will review the file” and she will get back to us. As for Accurate Appraisal, Muskevitsch told Murphy that all requests must go through the Town of Rock.
On May 12 Murphy again emailed Bennett, saying: “It’s been more than week and we haven’t heard anything, and the earlier request by our reporter Michael Horne goes back nearly a month. We are going to proceed assuming a full assessment of Hendricks home has not been made.”
Given how close the Hendricks property is to the town hall, it’s hard to imagine the assessor would not know about Hendricks’ huge home. And in any event, under Wisconsin law, municipal assessors are obliged to discover all real and personal property that is subject to tax. Physical inspection of properties, especially those with changes of ownership or construction permits, is the preferred method to keep properties assessed as close to 100 percent of market value in properties. That does not appear to have been done.
Accurate Appraisal has in the past made errors. In a rare move in 2015, the State Department of Revenue forced an assessor with the firm to give up his certification for six months following sloppy work on the 2014 assessments in Germantown. The firm was accused of “chasing the sale” — that is, basing property valuation simply on a recent sale of comparable parcels, without performing due diligence to see if the properties might be under- or over-assessed.
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel did a 2015 Watchdog report entitled “The Trouble with Taxes,” and “found in dozens of communities across Wisconsin, at least 20% of residential property taxes are being paid by the wrong people.”
Among those “wrong people” could be 3,337 of the 3,338 inhabitants of the Town of Rock — assuming Hendricks home is not assessed for property taxes, and perhaps if her land is under-assessed.
Finally it must be noted that Diane Hendricks is no stranger to the world of government. She is a co-chair of Rock County 5.0, a five-year public/private initiative to advance Rock County’s economic development, has served on the board of Wisconsin Eye, which televises legislative hearings, has served on the Republican National Committee and is close to Gov. Walker. She has pumped nearly $5.5 million into a conservative super PAC that’s spending millions of dollars on attack ads in her home state. These were purchased by the Reform America Fund, which has raised almost $5.9 million since it was launched in July 2015, meaning Hendricks accounts for 93 percent of its war chest.
List of Properties in Hendricks Compound
- 8.78 acres Land,$2,600 Improvements $0, Total $2,600 The Pitts LLC (6-17-195)
- 120 acres 1,663 s.f. ranch, $466,300 The Pitts, LLC (6-17-255)
- .76 acre undeveloped, $100 Hendricks Family Cemetery Association (6-17-255.01)
- .67 acre 1,592 s.f., $101,600 Hendricks Commercial Properties, LLC (6-17-255.1B)
- .98 acre undeveloped, $22,500 The Pitts, LLC (6-17-255.2)
- .98 acre undeveloped, $22,500 The Pitts, LLC (6-17-255.3)
- .99 acre undeveloped, $22,500 The Pitts, LLC (6-17-255.4)
- .99 acre undeveloped, $22,500 The Pitts, LLC (6-17-255.5)
- 9 acres. Land $2,300, Improvements $0; Total $2,300 Hendricks Land Development LLC (6-17-252.1)
- 2.52 acres. Land $3,300 Improvements $0; Total $3,300 Hendricks Land Development LLC (6-17-256)
- 7.09 acres. Land $7,100 Improvements $0; Total $7,100 Hendricks Land Development LLc (6-17-258)
- 76 acres. 4,000 s.f. Pole barn. Land $40,700; Improvements $240,700; Total $281,400 The Pitts LLC (6-17-272)
- Zero acres Land $5,500; Improvements $0; Total $5,500 The Pitts LLC (6-17-395)
- 0.6 acres Land $5,500; Improvements $0; Total $5,500 The Pitts LLC (6-17-399)
- Zero acres Land $28,000 Improvements $0; Total $28,000 Hendricks land Development LLC (Not part of compound, but in Town of Rock.) (6-17-425)
Total Acreage: 228
Total Assessed Valuation: $965,700
Property
More about the Curious Case of Diane Hendricks’ Property Taxes
- Back in the News: Diane Hendricks, Savior of Beloit? - Bruce Murphy - Aug 7th, 2017
- Hendricks’ Home Is Reassessed - Bruce Murphy - Jun 1st, 2017
- Mistakes Made on Hendricks Home - Bruce Murphy - May 22nd, 2017
- Hendricks Not Paying Property Taxes? - Michael Horne - May 17th, 2017
Read more about Curious Case of Diane Hendricks’ Property Taxes here
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Wait… While my municipality (Glandale) assesses us $40k over the appraisal, this person, with a very valuable property is skirting the whole thing……
This burns me to no end. I’m ashamed to be very have supported walker.
Casey you must be simpleton to presume Diane Hendricks pays no property taxes. A good journalist would not presume she pays no taxes simply because the local government does not cooperate. Was it even considered to ask the party that represents Diane Hendricks. I am sure she has a lawyer or an assistant. Does she walk the earth, I am sure she would answer the question. Who would duck that question. Just another case of hard working people being attacked by the left. No mention of her being YMCA Women of the Year, no just another greedy profiteer.
She wouldn’t comment last year when the JS wrote about her not paying income taxes for several years. Jason it’s comical and pathetic the way you rush to defend a billionaire who does whatever they can to avoid paying taxes and then ducks questions about it.
Every dollar they can save on taxes is another dollar they can spend as “job creators” running attack ads on local media outlets. I don’t know if Hendricks is behind them but I have noticed a ton of Tammy Baldwin attack ads being run on local TV stations. Unless I am mistaken we have 18 months until the next election. Do we have to endure 18 months of these nonsense “Tammy Baldwin killed somebody” attack ads?
Pay up, Dianne!
Just one more example of the rich paying little if any taxes for government services they use, like roads and sewers. Let alone paying their fair share towards the common good.
Melanie,
Rest assured, the likes of Dianne and her ilk care not for the “common good” only there own.
If she’s not paying commensurate property taxes then she must be paying someone who is allowing it to happen.
GREAT job by the journalist who investigated and wrote this! Thank you! We can all help by going into the land records and tax sites in our respective counties to check for glaring inconsistencies we wonder about like this one. Wow!, …but Greed gets stupid sometimes. I hope the county fires the assessor and sues them and her for lost revenue.
Jason,
You too are presuming, in this case that she does. “Nice lady or not, the tax rolls are clearly inaccurate.
This is not a left or right issue; let me say it again so you hear it. This is not a left or right issue. It is called fair governence and ACCURATE property value assessment, simple. If you cannot accept that premise then no intelligent discussion can be forthcoming.
A simple search of the property tax database for rock county shows that she paid $200k last year in property taxes for 1 ABC Pkwy… She has paid $2.4 million in property taxes over the last 16 years… She paid $7.6 million in Wisconsin income tax in 2015 and lawfully filed her taxes using legal deductions every single year… You should be ASHAMED of yourselves!!!
https://www.google.com/maps/dir/4007+W+Eau+Claire+Rd,+Janesville,+WI+53548/1+ABC+Pkwy,+Beloit,+WI+53511/@42.5945211,-89.0935495,12.25z/data=!4m13!4m12!1m5!1m1!1s0x88061f479cd0a89b:0xf5a19f0468734bb6!2m2!1d-89.0754612!2d42.6135683!1m5!1m1!1s0x8808a0d97a49f29d:0x710d46847a6024c2!2m2!1d-89.0302711!2d42.5121441
DHW, where did you get that information? Just pulled up payment history going back to 2001 and it isn’t even close to the numbers you claim. 2016 tax bill for that parcel is about $11K, and the bill conveniently does not show “Fair market price” as it does for other nearby parcels.
Payment history here:
http://www.co.rock.wi.us/Rock/TaxSearch/paymenthistory.php?taxid=034+077001
As Leona Helmsley once famously said,
“Only the little people pay taxes”
obama not n office so walker is looking 4 someone rich to get money from got to keep them pockets full now hes pushing to not pay taxes what about the less wealthy people we r left to pick up the rich no thank u no i did not say that before u just want to remove it so no one sees it
Paying their fair share of anything is not the rich people’s way. Disgusting as it is, paying taxes is for the little people.
Thanks for this article Michael Horne. Another reminder about how “just” our rule of law is in Wisconsin. Feel free to continue down the list of Bradley Foundation Board members.
The officials are hesitant to supply information because they are both intimidated and corrupted by her. Talk to the locals and they have doubts about the “investigation” of her late husbands “accidental” death.
As the saying goes. Q: How much money is enough? A: A little bit more.
CL you need to be looking at site: 1 ABC PKWY, that is the house. The other locations are empty lots or business locations.
Michael Murphy, you are a full on idiot! The top 1% pay more than the bottom 95% in income taxes. When they don’t they are utilizing legal deductions that are available to every single citizen in the country and some deductions that a good portion of the bottom 95% use. The truth is that taxation is theft and it is despicable that any of you think that you have a right to anyone else’s money!
This woman is a disgrace to real business woman. How is she a self made billionaire?! I’m pretty sure that was her husband, not her! I laugh at the comment of her late husband’s “accidental” death, I couldn’t agree more that it needs to be put in quotes!
@DHW The parcel you are referring to is listed and referred to in the story, but here is a link to it again: http://www.accurateassessor.com/card.php?id=96&parcel=6-17-255 (So you know 1 ABC PKWY is not the address of the home – it’s a mailing address of the business). But anyhow look at the link. See where it says: “Total Square Footage: 1663”, that’s the issue. From all reports the home is 10,000 square feet, not 1663. Hence there’s a problem.
Maybe they should talk to Rock County Supervisor Brent Fox about this. He is Hendricks’ son.
Taxation is theft? Who thinks like that? Greedy, selfish, privileged assholes for the most part.
DHW….you’re accusing others of having erroneous facts when you cannot even get one of the most basic facts correct. 1 ABC Parkway is NOT a house. It is the company headquarters. And the property taxes which you list for that address are, therefore, taxes paid on the company headquarters, not the residential property that is the focus of this article.
Check out the address listed: https://www.google.com/search?q=abc+building+supply&rlz=1C5CHFA_enUS667US671&oq=abc+building+supply&aqs=chrome..69i57j69i65j0l4.2915j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#q=abc+supply+beloit+wi
Check out aerial photos of the property:
https://www.google.com/maps/place/4007+W+Eau+Claire+Rd,+Janesville,+WI+53548/@42.6086377,-89.0821422,125a,35y,23.44h,52.06t/data=!3m1!1e3!4m5!3m4!1s0x88061f479cd0a89b:0xf5a19f0468734bb6!8m2!3d42.6135683!4d-89.0754612
When was the house built? Did it get building permits? What was the value stated on the permit request? In what year was the house was finished what was it listed as on the property roles? When was it “improved” and what was the values of the permits? The Deed in 2009 is for 4.2 million Where is the obvious error and yet there seems to be no error How does someone live in a 4+ million dollar house that is NOT ON THE TAX ROLES??? Peace Tom Spellman
I am wondering if the property was shifted into an LLC, making it a corporate asset. This effectively freezes regular re-assessments and keeps taxes significantly lower.
I started noticing wealthy property owners doing this about 15 years ago, when I worked on property tax issues in the state Capitol. It’s legal, but very shady. We tried to get it changed, but the Republican majority never let it get a hearing.
What is comical is that you guys think Dianne Hendrick’s is holding up Rock County for ransom. Seriously, do you really think local government personal are going to give her prime real estate and tax her nothing? You don’t know bureaucrats and in their dreams they enjoy squeezing and bothering small businesses. This is Onion material.
Small business? Isn’t she a billionaire? Talk about comical. You act like she is some small business owner struggling to get by that’s being unfairly picked on by “big government” and not a billionaire with a friend in the governor’s mansion.
Mr. Home:
If you’re going to consider yourself a reporter then get your facts straight and skip the insinuations. HEADER: On the Map Yet Off the Tax Rolls. WRONG! Ms. Hendricks property is assessed and she is paying property taxes. If you’ve got a problem (and there is ANY merit to it) it is with Accurate Appraisal and one would think you would be dealing with a higher up in that firm than their office manager as your contact. This is a classic example of cheap shot blogging without the need to be accountable for the truth.
Vince your right what did Sherlock Horne unearth? He should get the Edward R. Murrow award. Well done. It puzzles me that no one else could see this. The amount of work permits and compliance with Ms Hendrick’s home and no one noticed anything. We should throw Horne a parade maybe ask Mr. Murphy to pad his wallet a little more. Well done.
Please continue to investigate this. This is completely wrong. If us peons are made to pay our taxes based on what our property is worth- she should too.
Skip Bliss sounds angry. He should be. This huge error in assessment value and possible local government collusion and malfeasance, deliberate or not, happened in his backyard under his watch at the Janesville Gazette.
Why didn’t Bliss’ newspaper uncover this assessment discrepancy years ago?
Kudos to Michael Home for keeping his report on this as politically neutral as possible considering the hyper-partisan nature of Ms. Hendricks and her defenders.
You are awfully surly tonight Jason, even for you. You seem like you’re in a really bad mood. Sad because your hero Trump is fading fast and heading for impeachment?
Jason is a sad small drunk who’s probably sad that Davey Clarke won’t be coddling and validating his dreams any longer.
You Jason…. Are the simpleton.
Unlike Vincent above I don’t not consider myself a liberal but more of a decent conservative that can think for myself without billionaires pulling my strings.
Vince, what would impeachment do ? Would it make you feel better with Mike Pence. It would make me happy to see Sunday school Mike leading the way. What is your party’s plans for 2020. Mayor Gavin Newsom we can all celebrate his sexual orientation. Kamala Harris would be an interesting pick another Californian, you lefties adore Californians. I would go with Corey Booker, he is no Barack Obama but you need blacks to vote. You know to win.
Casey, do you have any clue how much money billionaire buddies Mayor Mike Bloomberg and “I don’t pay much in state taxes” Chris Abele invested in Sheriff David Clarke’s demise in the last election. The rich boy Democrats spent near a million dollars on a local county race and “Davey boy” still one thanks to the City of Milwaukee. You r just upset that you could not politically lynch him. He did it his way.
And the cemetery thing is she dug up hubby and placed him under the water falls so maybe its a tax right off just something to think about i learned this st the air show when the jets flew over a few years ago and talked about it hey could see his casket from the air?????
Oh I’m sure you are very fond of Mike “I Used Campaign Funds to Pay My Mortgage” Pence. So think about that. Find comfort in that. You are clearly in a low place right now and I hate seeing you this way. You are angry. I get it. Take a deep breath.
That spending doesn’t mean Clarke isn’t a reprehensible human being and terrible county sheriff.
What am I angry about. Governor, State legislature, State Supreme Court, 30 of 50 State Houses,the House of Representatives, the Senate, the Supreme Court, and Trumpy. I SEE RED BABY. A spic of blue for you. Superintendent Tony Evers!!! HAPPY DAYS ARE HERE, AGAIN !!!
Back to the subject folks. It appears that property is assessed at far less than fair market value. Why is that so? Is that ok.? If yes why?
It’s Afton Wisconsin, why would anyone complain what they haven’t paid when they’ve poured money into Beloit Wisconsin. Who cares they don’t pay property taxes on their residence when they pay millions in Beloit. Why don’t we stress what they do pay in taxes instead of what they don’t pay? Don’t forget this is a nationwide company that pays taxes in every state they do business. Plus they give back by employing thousands of people that pay taxes also. I know some of the story behind the Hendricks and there success, it was from the ground up. Who has the right to tell Diane on how to spend the businesses finances? It’s just a political attack that’s uncalled for! Get online read the company history and than tell me she’s trying to avoid taxes.
Money belongs to government.
That’s what you morons think?
It appears that she uses special privileges to assess her property. They’re written in such a way to not conflict with the Constitution which itself is being modified to accommodate the future.
The gist of Horne’s piece involves concealment of info re taxes. Presumably, Horne asked Murphy to join in the unearthing of that which looks to be buried because Murphy is especially good at digging deeper. God bless both of them for their efforts. Their frustration at finding #s to match property testifies to the skill that Hendricks has apparently employed to hide her assets from tax collectors. Please, God, do not bless her for this skill. Her success in this concealment results in disproportionate costs for those of us who are not Hendricks.
Post # 19 found some numbers, but they found them in nether regions where the sun never shines. Those #s stank with the smell of their origin, and they were so overcooked that they reminded me of the stench of a burning out-house.
THE DONALD entered the discussion for some reason (he shows up everywhere these days) possibly because he is infamous for refusing to share his tax info. If Trump revealed his tax info and his relationship with Russian interference in the 2016 election, we could have a President Pence maybe half as effective as President Ford: only half as effective because I doubt that Pence could pardon Trump.
Yes to knowingly undervalue your property is fraud and demonstrates a significant lapse of a person’s moral values. Let.s see who got screwed, or cheated or is it stolen from. For starters the people of the Town that the property is located in, The Town of Rock, and then the people of Rock County and then either the people of either the Beloit or Janesville School District and the people of the Technical District and finally all the people of the Wisconsin because of the State Tax that is part of the Property Tax. If I steal one dollar or 10,000 dollars or a 1,000,000 dollars I am stealing and nothing but a thief. Why anyone of such means and community standing would steal in this manner really does speak to their personal values and that is a sorry state of affairs. That they would expose themselves and their family to such public question It is always sad to see people, who are held up as upstanding citizens, fail in such a public manner. Below is the Town Code that establishes the Building Inspection Office and his/her duties.
.
BUILDING INSPECTOR
Address 5102 S COUNTY ROAD D
AFTON, Wisconsin 53501
Phone Number 608-756-3154
Staff BUILDING INSPECTOR Staff
Duties
Building Inspector [Revised by Ord. No. 2004-03 adopted 5/3/2004.]
(1) It shall be the duty of the Building Inspector to administer, supervise and literally enforce the provisions of the Town of Rock Building Code.
(2) The Building Inspector shall prepare building permit forms, assist any applicant in preparing any building permit application, advise the applicant as to the provisions of the Town Building Code, inspect each project for which a permit has been applied for or granted, report violations, and provide information to the Planning and Zoning Committee. The Building Inspector may issue Building Permits which are in strict compliance with the requirements of the Building Code and this Zoning Ordinance provided, however, that if a Zoning Permit is required, no Building Permit shall be issued by the Building Inspector until following the issuance of a Zoning Permit by the Zoning Officer. Whenever there is a question as to the literal requirements of the Building Code and/or this Ordinance, such question is to be brought by the Building Inspector directly to the Planning & Zoning Committee for its consideration.
Good journalism on the part of Michael Horne. I hope there is a followup. The defensive reaction from the owner of the Janesville Gazette seems particularly noteworthy to me.
Wow Skip Bliss: drunk driving, speeding, and possession of a firearm while intoxicated. Impressive.
If there is another way to avoid paying income taxes which rich people have but the rest of us do not, I’d like to know what it is. Why would we criticize someone for not paying more taxes than she owes? The list of ways in which someone can reduce their income taxes is getting very small and in most cases the alternative minimum tax removes any advantages for high income people (at least at the Federal level). Lets see, you can claim business expenses and business investments, give money to charity, lose money on an investment, defer it in a tax-qualified program and pay it later. What am I missing?
Hummmm Yes let us ALL stop paying TAXES For those who remember John Norquist he was one to CUT and CUT and CUT. For those who remember Oliphant the scene is a city that is totally destroyed and the commentary in the lower right hand corner on the little sign NO TAXES YEA!!!! The no tax fools are just that. Rather then be proud of the University of Wisconsin and our Parks and sports teams and our cities and …… some like to whine about taxes.
Sloppy headline. Yes, she is paying property taxes. Just not nearly enough.
But she KNOWINGLY did not pay her fair share and she/they did it for how long?? Peace
She has pays more taxes than all of us combined. Property taxes, payroll taxes, fuel taxes, capital gains taxes, school taxes, etc….
Go to the rock county website and find the tax bill for Pitts LLC which she is actively involved with. 2 Parcels for a total of about 20k a year in taxes. Take the time to do some research.
http://www.co.rock.wi.us/Rock/RockCoGis/
Not to hard to figure out if you want to.
@Steve Those properties are listed in the story (in fact the story includes many more parcels than 2). But that is not the issue. As the story lays out the issue is those records indicate that taxes are being assessed on a 1663 square foot house. Problem is those house is supposed to be 10,000 square feet. See the problem?
Steve What are you talking about? We are talking about Property Taxes. No Federal or State Income taxes or payroll taxes or fuel taxes JUST Property Taxes. The question is let us say that you pay $4,000 a year in Property Taxes and your next door neighbor lives in a house that is twice as big as yours and pays only $3,000 a year in Property Taxes. How would you feel. That is the issue before us if you did not understand.
Peace
Multiply each of these tax amounts by 10 to get a feel for how much she is stealing from her fellow citizens. Over all about $100,000 dollars a YEAR so (housed finished in 2008) for 9 years years almost a MILLION dollars about half to the Janseville School District
Taxing Body
Detail Amount
STATE OF WISCONSIN
106.70
ROCK COUNTY
4,365.54
TOWN OF ROCK
1,298.43
JANESVILLE SCHOOL
5,016.20
TCDB – BLACKHAWK
762.50
Skip Bliss, who posted the comment above, owns the Janesville Gazette – a daily that apparently goes soft on GOP donors.
I think this reporter stumbled across something they don’t quite understand. Property taxes are voluntary because registering your private property with the county tax roll is voluntary.
In the article it says: “under Wisconsin law, municipal assessors are obliged to discover all real and personal property that is subject to tax.” “Real” and “personal property” are not the same thing as private property. Private property is not taxable and “Real and personal property” are commercial terms and you change the status of your property from private to personal property when you register with the county tax roll. Property taxes and building permits are proof that you don’t actually own your stuff. You just possess them and you pay taxes for the right to use and enjoy you’re things. But I guarantee there are no 100 millionaires or billionaires that pay property taxes. Also, none them actually own anything. They put everything in a trust that they control.
Mike Hummmm A house is a house and someone or something owns it (has the right to sell it) and that someone or something is responsible for paying the property taxes. Peace tom
Mike,
Paying property taxes is not voluntary. If the property is put in a trust, then the trust owes the property tax.
You seem to believe that property taxes are like charitable contributions, which are voluntary.
Check out Judge anna von reitzinger and you might then begin to understand the fraud, deceit and corruption that is going on in this country. You will have to first come into it with an open mind and realize that just about everything that we know is not like we know it man. I’m not trying to start a debate. We have to stop playing these political games and banter because it is the perfect tool to keep us arguing back and forth and never getting anywhere. Keeps the heat off the real crooks. The real crooks are in our own back yard and have been there for almost 200 years and they have disguised themselves in many different forms (Corporations, UNITED STATES INC. for example). There’s a reason we have been at continuous war for so many decades. We need to lift the val and stop chasing the boogeymen man. There is a big difference between the private and the public and we ordinary people operate in the public. When you claim to be a UNITED STATES CITIZEN and register your things (assets) under their contracts (i.e.registration, taxes w-4) that they say are required, you have voluntary contracted aware or not. You entered into a contract and gave up those god given rights and organic constitution which is suppose to protect you from the very suppression we are under today. You have agreed to the Corporate charter which is the policy’s (acts and codes) of the UNITED STATES INC. and now you’re once rights are now privileges and can be taken at there discretion. There are a different set of rules. That’s why the justice system is in shambles. And we all believe the way things are are the way they are suppose to be. But yet so many people know something is wrong yet cant pinpoint it. They know how naive we are. We have been misled deep down the rabbit hole. The real crooks did a good job. You have to remember that all the other corrupt countries, dictators and rulers were once believed to be the men for the job and they turned on humans as well. The problem is that the terms that we government educated students use has one meaning then in the Law realm (government) which is a de facto government does not represent us and the constitution we thought protected us. That’s it in a nutshell I’m not here to argue and keep debating. Just trying to spark the ideas.I just hope even one person takes the time to do a little investigation and begin to help us all wake up from this pillaging! We as humans have to look out for our own not government.
Peace and love to all!
Crickets…….
Is Mike one of those sovereign citizens?
Mike sounds to me like an old soldier from THE REAGAN REVOLUTION: a subscriber to notions such as that “guvmunt is the problem; we have to get guvmunt off our backs … ” Ironically, Uncle Ron governed California with a knee in the back of his constituents there, and he had both knees in our backs when he was president of our country. He championed ignorance re the role of government so well that the vast right wing entertainer conspiracy resulted in Minnesota being governed by Jessie Ventura and the U.S.A. saluting a con man reality show host as president. Ain’t it great to hate government so fervently that you can get fools to rule?
You probably should not insult Jessie by comparing him to Trump When he talked he could string words together that MADE sense even if others disagreed with them. I guess if you see it as steps descending into hell than may that would be a fair statement. Peace
Great investigative Journalism. Using Google Earth tools (available to anyone) I measure the square footage of this property at about 9300 sq. ft. not including the garage. So close to 10,000 sq. ft. is quite accurate.
Accurate Appraisal BTW has similar tools for measuring square footage from aerial views. The fact that they reappraised the property twice and did not look at the aerial view of this property is very suspicious and at minimum shows a complete lack of due diligence that appraisers would normally use in assessing residential properties. I smell a rat or rats in this case.
Funny no one is mentioning how she has raised downtown Beloit from the dead, out of her own pocket. At least I didn’t see anyone mention it. I live less than a mile from her house and I know (and enjoy) all the good she does for the community.