State Treasurer Sarah Godlewski has convened a task force designed to help state residents buy homes and stay in them.
In Madison Wednesday, Godlewski announced the task force, composed of the state's 72 county treasurers, municipal officials, state, non-profit and private sector representatives...
"How can we improve opportunities for home ownership in Wisconsin. Home ownership is on the decline, specifically with first-time home buyers and young families. We're also going to look at foreclosures. How can we take pro-active measures to keep home owners in their homes? The third piece is taxpayer empowerment. How can we prevent delinquencies or penalties associated with property taxes?"
Godlewski says her office and the county treasurers hear from people who lose their jobs and now are worried they will lose their homes....
"There are resources across the state to help whether it is deferment, helping address penalty payments, there's even opportunities with home ownership, down payment. You don't know what you don't know..."
Godlewski says an early warning of not being able to afford a home is the inability to pay either property taxes or utility bills. She says treasurers see these early warning signs, and unless addressed, the problem gets worse.
Godlewski says they would like to have the work of the task force done by the end of the year with policy changes in 2021. She says there's challenges getting things through the legislature so the task force would like to find solutions that can be done themselves.
