Dark Store Legislation Campaign

Dark Store Legislation Campaign
Posted on 07/03/2018
The Village of Pleasant Prairie joins the League of Wisconsin Municipalities Dark Store campaign. This campaign is to keep the Dark Store Strategy and Walgreens Tax Shift in front of the candidates for the Governorship and Legislature this year. The League will be spending $75,000 in this effort and is asking Wisconsin municipalities to contribute a minimum $1,200 towards this campaign. The Village has agreed to contribute $2,700. 

The Village’s current exposure as a result of the Dark Store Strategy is about $27,000 shift in tax burden. The Village believes this contribution, representing 10% of the current exposure, is an appropriate measure to support the League’s effort to close the Dark Store loophole. Village President John Steinbrink states, “We are for this effort to protect homeowners and local businesses.”

As big box retail chains and single tenant commercial properties use dark store tax avoidance strategies to significantly reduce their property taxes, other taxpayers, mainly homeowners, will see their property taxes increase as they shoulder more of the tax levy. National big box retail chains and other commercial property owners are challenging their assessed values using the "Dark Store Strategy" to argue that their thriving business locations must be assessed for tax purposes as though they were a vacant, abandoned property. 

“When the tax levy rises on residents the municipality sees no additional revenue,” says Nathan Thiel, Village Administrator, “Essentially, it is the result of the state giving tax breaks to commercial and industrial property through the Dark Store and personal property tax relief.”

To learn more about the Dark Store and Walgreens Tax Shift visit www.lwm-info.org.
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