City of Portage, WI

Finance/Treasurer

The Finance/Treasurer’s Office provides financial support services to the entire city government organization.  This includes fiscal management and processing of all accounting transactions pursuant to generally accepted accounting principles.

Daily financial operations are comprised of processing accounts payable, accounts receivable, collection of revenues, payroll, debt management, special assessments, tax roll collection, utility billing, risk management, investments, capital asset record keeping, municipal court, mass transit management, CDBG housing management, and Economic Development management. The Finance Department compiles the Annual Budget, the Capital Improvement Plan, Annual Debt Study, Tax Increment Reports and the Comprehensive Annual Financial Report.

Moody’s Investor Service has assigned the City of Portage an A1 bond rating.

Wheel Tax Information

Faced with stagnant state transportation funding since 2008 and increasing costs for road maintenance, the City Council voted to join 20 municipalities and counties in the state and adopted the Municipal Vehicle Registration Fee or Wheel Tax, starting in 2017. A $20 Wheel Tax will be added to the annual Wisconsin Department of Transportation (WisDOT) vehicle registration fee to be used by the City of Portage exclusively for street and transportation improvements. Since 2008, the City of Portage has not received an increase in the amount of local road maintenance aid and highway aid received from WisDOT. The annual vehicle registration fee collected by WisDOT has been $75 since 2008, therefore the State has been unable to provide any increases in transportation funding to help cities and counties to maintain their roads. During the same period, however road construction and improvement costs have increased 15.3%.

For more information visit the Wisconsin Department of Transportation website on Municipal Vehicle Registration Fee or click on any of the documents below.

Municipalities​ That Have Enacted Wheel Tax
Municipal Vehicle Registration Fee (Wheel Tax) Frequently Asked Questions
2017 Wheel Tax Budget
Wheel Tax 2017 PowerPoint Presentation

Instructions: Search for Personal Property Tax Bills

Please note: If you do not have a copy of your Personal Property Tax Bill to reference, you will need to contact the City of Portage to obtain your parcel number in order to search for and print your Personal Property Tax Bill.  Personal Property Tax Bills are not searchable by address, business name, or last name.

  1. Begin by going to this link.
  2. From the Drop Down Menus in the upper right of the screen, choose:
    1. Choose Category: Personal property & tax
    2. What do you want to do?: Search accounts
  3. Enter the parcel number for your personal property taxes in the Account search field. Click Find Now.
    1. This is the number after 11271 - ______ on your tax bill.
  4. The account number will appear in red in the lower half of the screen.  Click on the number.
  5. In the middle of the screen, click on the drop down menu to Select Detail and choose Taxes.
  6. Click on the tax year in red that you want to see.
  7. A pdf of your personal property tax bill will appear.

Instructions: Search for Real Estate Tax Bills & Real Estate Tax Payment History

Columbia County Tax Parcel Data Search: Searching for Real Estate Tax Bills (from current or previous Tax Years) and Real Estate Tax Payment History

You can locate and print tax bills and research payment history from the Columbia County Tax Parcel Data Search online:

  1. Begin by following this link.
  2. Municipality: Choose “11271 - City of Portage”
  3.  Enter one of the following:
    1. Parcel ID (Digits following 11271 - )
    2. The street number
    3. The street name
    4. Last name of the property owner.
  4. Click Search.
  5. Accept the terms of the disclaimer.
  6. Click on the link to the tax parcel you searched for. You will see an information page titled: “Tax Parcel Information”
  7. In the middle of the web page you will see a series of blue tabs where you can choose to see additional information about this property. A few that may be useful to you are:
    1. Assessments: Clicking here will show the most current Real Estate Assessment. You can also click on previous years to compare.
    2. Taxes: You can view/print tax bills for that property, 2003 through present tax year. Click on the year and click the “Print Tax Bill” button.  Beneath the tax years, look for the Tax History heading. You can see payment history from tax years 2004 through the present tax year. Click on the link to any year to see more specific payment information.

Special Assessment Request

Special Assessments are to be sent to:
Deputy Treasurer
City of Portage
115 W. Pleasant Street
Portage,  WI  53901

$25 Fee for Special Assessment Request

See link to the left for Special Assessment Form.