The Board of Water Commissioners on Oct. 27 approved a resolution authorizing the placement of special assessments not to exceed $1,822,922.60 on the 2025 real estate tax roll to recover unpaid water and sewer charges and to fund related construction work.

The resolution covers assessments against benefited parcels for the construction of water and sewer mains, connections and laterals, lead service line replacements, and to collect delinquent water, sewer and household hazardous waste bills. A motion to approve the item was made and seconded and passed by voice vote; Commissioners Dominic Ruffalo (chair), Anthony Kennedy (vice chair), Brandy Fareed, Penny Keeling and Jack Rose voted in favor; Commissioner Bill Seal was excused.

Board members and staff said the tax-roll process is a common tool for Wisconsin utilities to recover unpaid charges without undertaking a widespread shutoff program. A city staff member explained that the board's action begins a process that also involves the board of law commissioners and the common council before any charges are finally placed on the tax roll. "It's just an annual resolution that's necessary to add essentially delinquencies and assessments to the tax roll," the city staff member said.

Staff described how preliminary assessments typically fall before the final tax-roll placement as customers pay balances between the initial assessment and the date charges are certified. The staff member said the preliminary figure this year is slightly lower than last year's initial assessment: "last year it started at just over $2,000,000 and then when we brought it before the board, it had already dropped to about $1,600,000," and that the amount actually applied to the tax roll last year was below $1,200,000. The staff member also said that historically "it looks to be right between 57 and 60 percent of what originally is evaluated actually gets placed on the tax roll." The staff member recommended approval.

The board noted the assessment figure is an upper limit and that payments received before the certification to the tax roll will reduce the final amount. The staff member said the utility will not place assessments on the tax roll until mid-week next week, allowing additional payments to be received.

The board took no other formal action on this item at the meeting; the resolution was approved and will move forward to the next steps in the tax-roll certification process.