First, the Prairie du Chien Courier Press reports:

The property tax base in Millville Township is shrinking, landowners’ shares are rising, and there may not be much residents can do about it. That was the message clearly heard by the 20 people attending a listening session with Senator Dale Schultz in Millville’s one-room town hall the morning of Aug. 27.

Recently, the Department of Natural Resources paid appraised value to purchase 146.5 acres from owner Jo Ann Shea, at 14246 Campbell Ridge Rd., Millville. The purchase brings the DNR’s total land ownership in Millville to about 4,200 acres out of 13,000, and the department is seeking another 500 acres, which would put 36 percent of the township’s land in the hands of the DNR.

The amount of land owned by the DNR is creating serious tax burden issues for the township, since the DNR is not subject to the same taxes as local landowners. …

According to the DNR, its state-owned land provides opportunities for public recreation, allows natural resources management, and enhances the natural resources along the riverway.

Despite the DNR’s promises, Millville Town Board members and local landowners who voiced their opinions at last week’s session believe they’re being slighted.

“What are our alternatives when we don’t have enough money to keep maintaining the township?” Millville Town Supervisor Judy Carlson asked Schultz. “It’s a challenge running this small township (on a budget of $105,000 to $110,000). We’ve been lucky that we have good people who help us where they can. But we’re just one piece of broken machinery away from a collapse we can’t recover from.”

“There’s nothing we can do. We have no options,” Supervisor Marlena Ward added.

Schultz was a state representative when the Riverway was created by the Legislature. I wonder how he feels about it today.

Speaking of taxes and land, from the Wisconsin Reporter:

When does a “tax break” not quite feel like a tax break? When the government’s involved.

Just ask property owners in Wisconsin’s Northwoods, the center of a controversial proposed iron-ore mine.

In response to a June 11 attack on workers at a potential mine site in northern Wisconsin, state Senate Republican lawmakers have proposed to cut off public access to 3,500 of the 21,000 acres of forest land leased by Gogebic Taconite, LLC,the company proposing a $1.5 billion iron-ore mine in the area. The bill passed out of committee Thursday.

In return, GTAC would pay the closed Managed Forest Land acreage rate on the acres it shuts down to public use, an estimated $500,000 fee to close off 3,500 acres. …

Woodland owners receive a “tax break” from the state in return for keeping their forests open to the public for hunting, fishing, hiking, sight-seeing, and cross-country skiing. If they remove their land from the program, they have to pay back taxes – even if the land has been open to public use for years.

It’s kind of like canceling a two-year phone contract midway through.

Woodland owners, though, say they’re not getting a tax break at all. Instead, the state in essence strong-arms the woodland owners into putting their property into open Managed Forest Land.

“The tax rate on forest land is anywhere from $20 to $80 an acre, depending on where in the state the forest is. People see the discount (for MFL) and say, ‘Wow, that’s a huge break,’” Richard Wedepohl, chairman of the Wisconsin Woodland Owners Association government affairs committee, told Wisconsin Reporter. “If you look at the cost of services for a municipality, it’s estimated between one to two dollars (an acre). To call it a tax savings, we don’t think is appropriate.”

Wedepohl said the closed MFL rate — where landowners give permission to sportsmen before they can use the woods — is scheduled to go to about $11 an acre, but should be in the $2 range, about where open Managed Forest Land is now.

On top of the property taxes, woodland owners pay a yield tax when they remove timber from their forest.

In the past, property owners for the most part knew who was using their land. Now, anyone with Internet access can look on a state website to see where open land is and venture in for whatever reason, according to Wedepohl.

“Woodland owners who look at the $2 rate just about have to open their land to unlimited public access,” he said. “That’s not our land anymore. We don’t know who’s on it. Hunters drop trash or a few times accidentally shot the property owner’s dog. It’s not something people are very tolerant of anymore.” …

The larger problem is the high tax rate charged to woodland owners. Wedepohl says the rate is so high most landowners who want to run a business growing trees can’t justify the costs to the Internal Revenue Service.

The larger problem is tax dollars going to buy land to take it off the tax rolls so that units of government don’t have the money to pay for government services, which increases property taxes. But every time I bring up the Knowles–Nelson Stewardship Program, I’m accused of being anti-environment or anti-DNR. (Well, that’s half right.)