Thanks to a super-heated real estate market, average assessed values in town increased 39percentt.
The same thing happened in 1996 when the town increased beach parking fines from $25 to $40, he said.
Several residents in Milwaukee have reported seeing a lion roaming around the town, increasing tensions in Wisconsin's biggest city.
But even if the town increases the amount -- officials acknowledge privately they would have to raise it substantially to be fair -- the owners say they want to stay.
From 1990 to 2000, census figures show, the number of Asians as a proportion of the 53,000 residents in the unincorporated town increased to 36percentt from 27percentt.
Since the near-collapse of the timber industry in the town, increased tourism and the nearby jail have taken up much slack in the local economy.
Over the past 10 years the number of children getting free and reduced lunch doubled, while in-state tuition fees at Colorado State University, which has a huge campus in town, increased 138%.
When Nazi sympathy in the town increased, the Samuels moved to Berlin, where (like many Jews) they hoped the anonymity afforded by a large city might let them skirt danger.
A giant sugar plantation and factory near the town increased employment, and another large farm raises civet cats for their civet, a secretion used in the manufacture of perfume.
After a popular 2000 TV drama featured Oma, the town increased tourism by starting a three-day tuna festival every year in mid-October, which now draws 15,000 visitors a day, as well as hordes from the Japanese media, Mr. Kanazawa said.
