SPRINGWATER, Wis. — A vote by the Town of Springwater board of review on June 3 wiped roughly $2.7 million from Evergreen Campsites & Resort’s 2023 tax roll and spared the park’s seasonal guests about $62,000 in charges, a decision that OHI says could set the tone for local assessors across Wisconsin, according to industry figures.
The rollback offers a playbook for dozens of small-town parks that were bracing for surprise assessments after the state scrapped its longstanding personal-property tax.
The personal-property repeal, created by 2023 Act 12, was meant to streamline business paperwork when it took effect Jan. 1, 2024, but it left some municipal budgets scrambling. Several towns responded by reclassifying campers’ decks, sheds and other improvements as real property tied to campground land, sending unexpected five- and six-figure bills to park owners and, indirectly, to their guests.
The Springwater outcome is now drawing attention from others in the campground industry as they seek a uniform fix.
Act 12, signed June 20, 2023, ended annual personal-property filings for businesses and set up a state fund to reimburse municipalities for lost revenue. It also lets assessors move certain former personal-property items onto a real-property roll under Wis. Stat. § 70.17(3), details outlined in a legal briefing.
Some assessors took that latitude and ran with it. Decks, patios, even wheeled RV units suddenly showed up as taxable real estate on campground parcels, inflating valuations overnight. In Waushara County alone, Evergreen and five neighboring parks saw about $161,000 in such shifted assessments for 2023 before Springwater reversed course.
Evergreen owner Jim Button, vice chair of the Outdoor Hospitality Industry (OHI) board, challenged the spike with help from OHI, the Wisconsin Association of Campground Owners and lobbyist Bob Welch. “It’s a small-town win here in Springwater but it can mushroom into a big win for the state of Wisconsin,” Button said.
Using Act 12’s reimbursement clause, Button argued the town could recoup any lost revenue from the state rather than from park operators. The board agreed, erasing the added value and the tax that would have followed. “And it’s a difference of $2.7m in assessed tax value for me, and close to $62,000 in savings for our seasonal campers alone. Maybe in turn, they’ll take some of that and spend it in the local community. In the end, it’s a win for the camper, it’s a win for the small business campground owner, and it’s a win for the town overall,” Button said.
Because Springwater will collect its shortfall from the Act 12 fund, OHI and WACO say other towns can adopt the same template instead of billing parks directly. The two groups are tracking similar disputes in multiple counties.
To help park owners avoid the next surprise assessment, industry experts recommend keeping a current, line-item inventory of all personal property, scheduling an annual assessment-review week each spring and taking date-stamped photos, maintaining an open dialogue with the municipal assessor, filing for informal review as soon as a notice seems off, and pooling resources with nearby parks to hire one property-tax consultant.
Meanwhile, lawmakers are trying to eliminate the gray area that triggered the assessments. A bill introduced in May 2025 by Assembly Speaker Pro Tempore Kevin Petersen and Sen. Rachael Cabral-Guevara would exempt camping units on licensed campgrounds from any property tax. “We eliminated the personal property tax, now we have to make sure we finish the job and clear up the current haphazard way that camping units are being assessed,” Rep. Kevin Petersen said. He added, “This is a billion-dollar industry for Wisconsin and should not be singled out for unfair taxation,” Petersen said. The measure has not been scheduled for a vote, but backers hope to see it enacted before the 2026 camping season, according to the campground bill.
Button and OHI’s efforts provide a playbook any park can copy. Joining at least one trade group and subscribing multiple staff emails to action alerts, inviting local legislators to tour the park on a busy weekend, arming front-desk staff with a three-sentence summary of key issues, offering meeting space for civic boards to build goodwill, and sharing advocacy wins with guests through newsletters can help park owners influence future taxation or zoning proposals.
Boards of review are finalizing 2025 rolls now. While Act 12 established a reimbursement mechanism for municipalities, documentation of present appropriation or availability for this specific purpose has not been confirmed. “Recreational parks should not be responsible for billing and collecting taxes that are not ours. Plain and simple,” Button said.
“This type of thing has a history of quickly spreading to other states like a cancer,” David Basler of OHI said, warning operators nationwide to watch Wisconsin’s next move.