Steve Brown Apartments dodges city fees · The Badger Herald
Property owners are costing the city of Madison millions of dollars by taking advantage of a loophole in a state law created in 2001. By registering the property as a limited-liability corporation, such as Steve Brown Apartments , LLC, rather than as a parcel of land, owners are allowed to sell property without filing the selling price with the city of Madison. The owner is then automatically exempt from real estate transfer fees and can easily avoid high property taxes because no sale price is recorded and the city does not know the property’s actual value. Shielding the actual value often results in an underestimation by the city of the property assessments and a lowering of the amount owners must pay in property tax. “It reduces taxes paid to Madison Area Technical College , the Madison School District and various entities on the property tax bill . Theoretically they’re getting away with not paying their fair share,” said City Council President Mike Verveer . Verveer said th...