One Wisconsin Now

This document is to provide additional information on the New York tax assssors case that has some similarities to what happened here in Wisconsin. This document contains editted excerpts from newspaper articles. I chopped out sections that I felt weren't necessary for you to read, because the information doesn't apply to the matter at hand and/or it was redundant to earlier excerpts. I've included references back to the original articles, in case you want to satisfy yourself whether I've editted them unfairly. .

Document URL: Link Copyright New York Times Company Jan 8, 2003 For the last year, New York's powerful real estate industry has been crackling with tension as federal investigators have pressed for the names of any property owners who may have knowingly benefited from a long-running bribery scandal. That possibility all but evaporated late Monday afternoon. Albert Schussler, 85, the man indicted last February as the ringleader of the bribery scheme -- and the one person who investigators thought could tell exactly how the scheme worked and who benefited -- died after a severe stroke. In the scandal, city assessors lowered the tax bills for many of Mr. Schussler's clients, the owners of some of New York's most valuable skyscrapers, hotels and apartment houses. So far, 15 assessors have pleaded guilty to bribery charges related to the allegations against Mr. Schussler. For investigators at the United States attorney's office and the city's Department of Investigation, who have tried to break a case against corruption in the city's Finance Department for at least 14 years, Mr. Schussler's death was frustrating.   Read More »

Who do you know wants to buy a car?" There is hardly anyone in southeastern Wisconsin who hasn't heard that question.(excerpted from the evsauto webpage)- That's because auto dealer Ernie von Schledorn asked it in his tv commercials and made it famous.Who do you know wants to believe the numbers discussed below? You can also ask the question as "Who do you know wants to buy a house?" because people are purchasing houses in some communities, at prices based in part on these calculations.*Warning- to fully understand this blog you need some understanding of a branch of mathematics known as multiple regresion analysis, please consult your local math expert.

Does a newspaper article contain evidence of violating the proper procedures for multiple regression analysis mathematics? According to multiple regression mathematical procedure was a review of generated values due to take place well before tax assessments were mailed out? Was that review supposed to lead to an inspection/review in the field of suspicious generated values, both high and low? If this procedure was violated does it rise to the level of a crime? Does it mean the output is flawed? Is it so flawed as to be unreliable? Were the property values properly assessed and taxed? What does it mean if they weren't? Is the one million overassessment just the visible tip of a much larger "iceberg" of problems? "Who do you know wants to buy a house, based on these numbers?" Other communities that Everson worked on include Bayside, Cudahy, Kenosha, Marshfield, Stevens Point, and West Bend. Are their records as bad?

Hypothetically- If one doctor offered you a facelift for $120k, and the next lowest bidder was $100k more at $220k, would you be nervous about buying that one at $120k? Would it make you want to check references? The images are 5 pages from the state issued assessors manual to help you decide if you think the proper procedure was followed.
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