FDL City Council Passes Dark Store Resolution

The Fond du Lac City Council passed a resolution they hope will help convince state legislators to correct the “Dark Store” loophole in property tax assessments. City Manager Joe Moore told the City Council this week that big box stores and large retailers are using it to successfully argue that they shouldn’t be penalized for doing business in what otherwise would be an empty storefront. He says Walgreen’s used the loophole to get a large refund from the City and a cut in their assessment for three year periods. He says with three stores alone they had to rebate $50,000 and cut $400,000. He says the problem is the tax base is like a big pie and if someone isn’t paying their fair share the burden goes to other taxpayers. He says in this case that $450,000 went down for Walgreen’s, but it is passed onto to everyone else including residential, commercial, manufacturing and others. He says in Menard’s case they used the loophole to get their property assessment lowered from $9.2 million to $5.2 million.