Lake District to vote on assessment reduction

From the Daily Jefferson County Union

Property owners in the Rock Koshkonong Lake District are slated to vote Saturday on a produced special assessment reduction.

The lake district’s annual meeting will be held at 9 a.m. on Saturday, Aug. 2, at Fort Atkinson High School. Under state law, property owners must be present to vote. Absentee or proxy voting is not permitted.

As proposed by the Rock Koshkonong Lake District Board of Commissioners, property owners will consider a reduction in the special charge assessed in 2009 from $45 to $40 per parcel.

The district encompasses all 10,460 acres of Lake Koshkonong and portions of Rock, Jefferson and Dane counties along the Rock River from Jefferson downstream to the Indianford dam near Edgerton.

There are approximately 8,000 total residents with more than 4,000 parcels within the district.

“The board has been ultra-conservative with taxpayer monies,” district chairperson Brian Christianson said. “We only tackle projects that our constituents support, which they indicate at the annual meeting by directly voting on their tax levy.”

The proposed reduction includes the continuing legal argument against the Department of Natural Resources in the water level proceedings.

Christianson said the district’s legal team provided pro bono representation during the Rock County Circuit Court proceedings, which concluded in May.

As a result, a rollover balance for water level proceedings is expected to be included in the 2009 budget.

“It enabled us to reduce the special tax charge while continuing the legal argument against the DNR in the water level proceedings,” Christianson said. “The judicial system rarely sees a case like ours, and for minimal cost, we can get closure to complex legal questions that, so far, are left unanswered.” (The full story appears in the July 30 Daily Union).