It is better PR not to lower assessment because the higher tax rate will be all anyone sees, even when the total amount of taxes being paid is the same. If anything, they would be wasting money actual performing the assessments.
Also Janesville’s job problem is bigger that its tax problems. You will probably pay more taxes if you move to almost any other similar or bigger city in Wis. Making negative statements along the line of Janesville becoming a ghost town will not bring jobs. Though, it may scare those that wish to away.

Just to point out to the people who keep wanting their properties reassessed because they think their properties have declined in value...this is not really going to change the amount of your property tax bill. The city and county still have to get money for their operations and the main source is property taxes. The only thing a mass lower of property values on the assessment role will do is have everyone pay a higher % of tax relative to the new, lower reassessed value. The government will still get their money.

I'm all for smaller government, but the public libraries, universities, and schools are necessary for sustaining and attracting good jobs.

I hope they don't raise property taxes anymore. We are on a tight budget the way it is. Doesn't pay to own property anymore. Whether it through taxes, fees, fines, or whatever, you will always be paying money to the city for your own property...and they will always find a way to get more from you.

I agree with SSRFANATIC. I lost my job a year ago and just got the letter that my extension was denied. I can't afford for taxes to go up. My house has dropped over 40K in value in the last 2 years and I now owe more than it's worth. I was turned down 3 times in the last 2 weeks for positions that apparently I'm overqualified for. Hello? I will clean your toilet to feed my family! My family is also considering leaving the area.
The state does need to start making cuts. As much as we like museums, parks, and the likes, we can't afford them. There are a lot of causes that the state has promised funds too that we just can't give out right now. A library in the name of ??? is great but not when we have to foot half the bill. Certain offices can wait to be remodeled. Other services can wait to move into a new building. Someone is going to have to be a "hardbutt" on this stuff. Who's going to do it though???

I agree that the folks in the offices need to step back.

Instead of raising taxes in an already dwindling economy to keep things as they were.

Face it the economy is in the toilet, and regular folks can't afford a tax increase because some one with supposed greater knowledge doesn't want to take a pay cut as many others have already.

The property values in this are have plummeted. but yet they decide to forestall any reassessmnets till 2012. What's up with that? (oh hopefully the economy will be better by then and we can raise taxes again because it is better. In the mean time we've been stealing money from the taxpayers by not giving them the true diminished value for their properties over the next two to three years.)

They need to look at what fat is in the budget and cut back, just as many families in this community have already. I for one have been out of a regular job for two years (no I DIDN'T work for GM) living on what little I have left in my savings because most places I've been too tell me I'm over qualified for the position.

Well my funds are running very short and my next alternative is to leave this city and go to an area that has opportunities for both me and my family to make a decent living.

I'd have to take a loss on my home, because the property values are down (even if the city managers don't think it is), and my home is worth 20K less than it was a little over a year ago.

Come on folks. Wake up and see what's happening.

More and more taxes for less and less services so that the city officials can keep their current pay or take an anual raise instead of pitching in and cutting back like a large number of us already have.

I agree with Hollynfaith. With unemployment as high as it is, and if you raise property taxes when people barely make enough to live on, say nothing about paying MORE taxes, how on earth do you expect people to STAY in Janesville? You've already seen how many left after GM and companies associated with GM went out of business. How many more citizens can Janesville stand to lose? People are already moving to other cities/states where there are more jobs available. Janesville will be a ghost town yet, just you watch!!

Does it take a rocket scientist to figure out that if the unemployment rate is up, people are out of work and if people are out of work, they can't afford to pay the taxes they owe? Maybe if Doyle didn't run such an unbalanced budget to begin with, we wouldn't be in this bad of a mess. And the plan is to raise property taxes or cut city/county services? How about cutting the salaries of the people who put the economy in this situation instead to make up for the shortfall? has Doyle taken a paycut yet?

Is there anyone in town who ever doubted where our property taxes are headed? This story is maybe just meant to be a little body blow before the knockout punch is delivered!!