Removal of Judges

The 1848 constitution permitted the legislature, by a two-thirds vote in each house, to remove by address “[a]ny judge of the supreme court or, circuit court.” But the constitution was silent as to county and municipal court judges. To remedy this omission, Article VII, Section 13 was amended in 1974 to apply same removal procedure to “[a]ny judge of the supreme or, circuit, county or municipal court.” This language was further simplified only three years later as a part of the 1977 judicial overhaul. That amendment applied the removal procedure to “[a]ny justice or judge” rather than listing types of courts.

Agricultural Land Exception to Uniform Taxation

Like nearly all state constitutions, Wisconsin’s constitution contains a provision requiring that “taxation shall be uniform.” This requirement was meant to promote fair taxation and prevent preferential treatment for influential property owners. However, over time, there have been many amendments carving out exceptions to the rule of uniformity. These include the 1908 amendment to Article VIII, Section 1 permitting a progressive and graduated income tax, the 1927 amendment permitting non-uniform taxation of forests and embedded minerals meant to aid Wisconsin’s logging industry, the 1941 amendment permitting municipalities to collect property tax payments in installments, and the 1961 amendment permitting non-uniform taxation of merchants’ products and materials to phase out personal property taxation.

The most recent of these amendments in 1974 permitted non-uniform taxation of agricultural and undeveloped land. This amendment permitted the legislature to establish the farmland preservation tax credit, which was aimed at disincentivizing farmland owners from selling their farmland to developers. It also effectively overruled the Wisconsin Supreme Court’s significant decision in Knowlton v. Board of Supervisors, 9 Wis. 410 (1859), which held Janesville’s cap on agricultural property taxes unconstitutional under the Uniformity Clause.