88.43 HistoryHistory: 1987 a. 378; 1989 a. 56.
88.4488.44Contesting validity of assessments.
88.44(1)(1)If an interested person petitions the drainage board for review of the validity of any order assessing benefits or costs, correcting omitted assessments, reassessing benefits or apportioning benefits upon division of a parcel, the drainage board shall fix a time and place of hearing and require all interested persons to show cause why the assessment should be modified. The order to show cause shall be served as provided in s. 801.11 upon such persons as the court directs.
88.44(2)(2)Any person objecting to the validation of the assessment shall, on or before the day fixed for the hearing, file a written statement of the person’s objections with the drainage board. The drainage board shall hear the objections at the time fixed for the hearing and shall enter an order directing all necessary amendments and curing all defects in the former proceedings or shall render valid and binding the former order.
88.44(3)(3)No drainage assessment is void or voidable for irregularity in the proceedings unless it is shown that the assessment is inequitable.
88.44(4)(4)An interested person shall submit a petition under sub. (1) and obtain either the decision of the drainage board under this section or a denial of the petition for a hearing before seeking judicial review of the drainage board’s order levying an assessment.
88.44 HistoryHistory: 1991 a. 316; 1993 a. 456.
88.4588.45Procedure upon discovering omitted assessments.
88.45(1)(1)Upon learning of an omission to assess benefits or to assess costs or to award damages to any lands in a district, the board shall issue an order making the assessments or awards that the board considers just.
88.45(2)(2)No omission to assess benefits or to assess for costs or to award damages to any lands in a district renders any assessment in the district voidable.
88.45(3)(3)This section is retroactive.
88.45 HistoryHistory: 1993 a. 456.
88.4688.46Reassessment of benefits.
88.46(1)(1)At any time after the expiration of 5 years from the order of the board assessing benefits in a drainage district, owners of land in the district may petition the drainage board for a reassessment of benefits on the ground that the original assessment of benefits is inequitable and unjust. The petition shall be signed by at least one-tenth of the owners of land within the district or by the owners of at least one-tenth of the lands within the district.
88.46(2)(2)Upon receipt of a petition meeting the requirements of sub. (1), the board shall either schedule a hearing on the matter to be held within 60 days after receiving the petition or issue an order denying the petition within 60 days after receiving the petition. If it appears to the board that the original assessment of benefits throughout the drainage district was uniformly low or substantially so, by reason of the application of a substandard evaluation or other cause, the board shall issue an order adjusting all benefits in the district so as to correct the inequities and injustices.
88.46(4)(4)A reassessment under this section supersedes all prior assessments of benefits, subject in every case to s. 88.02.
88.46 HistoryHistory: 1979 c. 110 s. 60 (11); 1993 a. 456.
88.4788.47Apportionment of assessments when assessed parcel is divided. If any tract of land which has been assessed benefits as a unit subsequently is divided into smaller parcels, the board shall issue an order to apportion the assessment, and any unpaid assessment for costs based thereon, among the several divisions in a manner that is equitable.
88.47 HistoryHistory: 1977 c. 449; 1993 a. 456.
88.4888.48Assessment of county and municipal lands.
88.48(1)(1)Lands owned by a county, town, village or city may be assessed benefits, awarded damages and assessed for costs the same as other lands within the district. Notice of hearing on the report assessing benefits against such lands shall be served on the clerk of the county, town, village or city in the same manner as upon resident landowners.
88.48(2)(2)As assessments for costs levied against any city, village, or town become due, the board shall certify the assessments to the clerk of the city, village, or town, and the clerk shall place them upon the next tax roll. If the assessments exceed one-fourth of one percent of the assessed value of the property in the city, village, or town for the last previous assessed valuation, the assessments shall be paid in installments of one-fourth of one percent of the valuation for each year until paid unless the drainage board orders them paid in smaller amounts.
88.48 HistoryHistory: 1993 a. 456; 2009 a. 177.
88.48 AnnotationA town sanitary district is subject to assessment by a drainage board. State ex rel. Town of Norway Sanitary District #1 v. Racine County Drainage Board of Commissioners, 220 Wis. 2d 595, 583 N.W.2d 437 (Ct. App. 1998), 97-2861.
88.4988.49Assessment of one district by another; judgment against district. If one district, by order of the drainage board, has assessed another district for special benefits, or if a money judgment has been rendered against any district, the board shall assess upon the lands of the district that is liable a sum that is sufficient to pay the assessment or judgment. The drainage board may order that the assessment be payable in installments.
88.49 HistoryHistory: 1993 a. 456.
88.5088.50When state lands subject to assessment; right-of-way across state lands.
88.50(1)(1)Agricultural lands owned by the state are subject to assessment in drainage proceedings. Other lands owned by the state are not subject to such assessment. Whenever the state acquires lands against which drainage assessments have been made and which no longer will be subject to assessment, the state shall pay the district all unpaid assessments against such lands, whether due or not. The secretary of the board then shall remove the lands from the district’s assessment roll. Acquisition of such lands by the state shall not be construed as prohibiting maintenance of existing drains.
88.50(2)(2)No drain may be constructed on lands owned by the state or on lands on which the state exercises management control by easement, lease or otherwise, without the written permission of the agency responsible for the lands. The agency shall grant such permission upon application made to it, unless it finds after notice and public hearing thereon that the proposed drain will be injurious to the use of the property for the purposes for which it was acquired by the agency. Any administrative decision on the application, or any findings or order of the agency after public hearing, made hereunder shall be subject to review under ch. 227.