WEST BEND, WI – The Washington County Treasurer’s Office has completed an historic tax roll project, scanning records from 1849-1984 to create a permanent online backup and increase their accessibility to property owners and the general public.

County Treasurer Scott Henke said, “This is very exciting that these historic records are available to the public at any time. Thanks to the Washington County Land Information Program (WLIP) and the County Board of Supervisors for the funding and support of this priceless project.”

Many of the oldest original tax roll books were hand-written, fading, and starting to deteriorate. The 1985-1999 tax rolls are on microfiche, which are fading. These records have been scanned and will be available soon, making all records from 1849-2023 available online.

The County Board approved the project in 2022 Resolution 24 and transferred $225,000 from the Wisconsin Land Information Program (WLIP) Retained Revenue Fund to the Land Record Fee Expense for the Historic Tax Roll Scanning Project. Higher than anticipated WLIP revenue was received, and enough funds were accumulated to complete the tax roll scanning project at one time instead of the originally planned phased approach over several years.

WLIP is funded in part through a fee paid to record real estate documents by county registers of deeds. Per Wisconsin statute, the WLIP revenue must be used to develop, implement, and maintain the countywide plan for land records modernization.

The link to the Historic Tax Roll records is on the County Treasurer’s web page at washcowisco.gov under Quick Links > Historic Tax Rolls and users then conduct a search by year and then municipality.

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