Last updated: July 2026
The Town of Hill received an official non-compliance advisory from the Wisconsin Department of Revenue. The state determined that the town’s property assessments have drifted too far from actual market values, and Hill has three years to fix the problem.
The Hill board reviewed the DOR notice at its November 17, 2025 meeting. Supervisor Jeff Ulrich presided in the absence of Chairman Ron Wiitala. The board acknowledged the advisory and outlined a rough path forward: a full re-evaluation of property values, targeted for 2027. Gives the town a deadline. It also gives property owners a reason to pay attention.
What DOR Non-Compliance Actually Means
The Wisconsin Department of Revenue monitors property assessments across every municipality in the state. The goal is simple in theory: a property’s assessed value should reflect what it’s actually worth on the market, or at least a consistent percentage of that value across all properties in the municipality.
When assessments fall out of line with market values, the system breaks down. Some property owners end up paying more than their fair share in taxes. Others pay less. It’s not a question of tax rates going up or down. It’s a question of whether the distribution of the tax burden is accurate.
DOR issues a non-compliance advisory when a municipality’s assessed values have diverged too far from market reality. The advisory is not a fine. It’s a formal notice that the municipality needs to bring its assessments back into line, and it comes with a timeframe for doing so.
For Hill, that timeframe is three years. The town needs a full re-evaluation completed by 2027 to get back into compliance.
What a Re-Evaluation Means for Property Owners
A re-evaluation is exactly what it sounds like. A certified assessor reviews every property in the town and assigns new assessed values based on current market conditions. Some values will go up. Some might go down. Most will probably change. Matters because property assessments directly determine how the tax burden is distributed. If your property value goes up relative to your neighbors’, you pay a larger share of the town’s total tax levy. If it goes down, you pay less.
The re-evaluation doesn’t change how much money the town collects In general. It changes who pays what share. For a town of roughly 400 people, even small shifts in assessed values can have real consequences for individual households.
What it doesn’t mean is an automatic tax increase. A common misconception is that higher assessments lead to higher taxes. That’s only true if your assessment rises more than the average. If everyone’s assessment goes up equally, the tax rate adjusts downward, and individual bills stay roughly the same.
But the current system isn’t fair. The state looked at Hill’s numbers and concluded that some property owners are paying too much while others are paying too little. The re-evaluation is designed to fix that.
Three Transitions Hitting at Once
The DOR compliance deadline isn’t the only change coming to Hill in 2027. It’s one of three.
Chairman Ron Wiitala announced his resignation plan at the town’s April 21, 2026 annual meeting. The board approved his resignation timeline in an 18-1 vote, with Wiitala planning to step down in April 2027. Means the town will be selecting new leadership at the same time it’s working through a state-mandated property re-evaluation.
The town’s property assessor is also retiring in 2027. The board noted this at the November 17 meeting, and it creates a practical problem. The person who currently understands Hill’s property records and assessment history will be gone just as the town needs to complete a full re-evaluation to satisfy DOR requirements.
Three transitions. A new chairman. A new assessor. A full property re-evaluation. All converging on the same year.
For a town of 400 people, that’s a lot of institutional knowledge walking out the door at once. The board will need to hire a new assessor or contract with an assessment firm capable of conducting the re-evaluation. They’ll need to do it while leadership is changing hands. And they’ll need to meet the state’s compliance deadline.
What happens next
The board’s November 17 discussion established the basic timeline. A re-evaluation is needed by 2027. The current assessor will retire that same year. The chairman plans to leave in April 2027.
What the board hasn’t yet detailed is how the re-evaluation will be conducted. Towns the size of Hill typically contract with a professional assessment firm rather than maintaining an in-house assessor. The firm would review property records, conduct field inspections where needed, and produce new assessed values for every parcel in the town.
Property owners in Hill should expect to hear more about the re-evaluation process as 2026 progresses. The town will need to budget for the cost of the re-evaluation, select a contractor, and establish a timeline that gets the work done before the 2027 deadline.
The DOR advisory gives Hill a clear mandate. What’s less clear is how smoothly the town can navigate the transition, given that the people currently responsible for guiding it are planning to leave.
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A Common Rural Challenge
Hill’s situation isn’t unique. Small towns across Wisconsin struggle with assessment compliance, especially when property values shift due to lakefront development, recreational property demand, or rural real estate trends. A part-time or contracted assessor can only do so much, and market values move faster than assessment cycles.
The DOR’s non-compliance process exists to catch these gaps before they get worse. Hill isn’t being singled out. The state is telling the town that its numbers need updating, and giving it a reasonable window to get it done.
Hill faces all three at once. A DOR compliance requirement, a chairman’s resignation, and an assessor’s retirement all landing in 2027. For a town of 400 people, that’s a lot to handle in a single year.
The next several months will tell whether Hill’s board can line up the pieces in time. Property owners who want to understand how the re-evaluation might affect their tax bills should watch for board agendas and meeting minutes as the process moves forward.