Focus Newsletter Always on the state budget stage: The struggle to control property taxes

July 10, 2015  •  No. 12
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  • Summary
  • Press Release

  • While other issues dominated the state’s 2015-17 budget drama, concern over local property taxes always lurked in the wings. New, final figures from the state show the 2014-15 net levy was $9.49 billion, a 2.3% drop from 2013-14. As a share of state personal income, this year’s levy was 3.6%, the lowest percentage since 1946. State-mandated levy and revenue controls were the main cause.

  • Todd A. Berry or Dale Knapp

    Final Property Tax Figures for 2014-15 Show 2.3% Drop

    As Share of Income, Tax Levels at Lowest Since 1946

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    MADISON—Total property taxes fell 2.3% to $9.32 billion in 2014-15, according to final levy figures recently released by the state. That was the first drop since 1996-97. These figures are from the latest report from the Wisconsin Taxpayers Alliance (WISTAX), “Always on the state budget stage: The struggle to control property taxes.”
    Even more significant was Wisconsin’s property tax burden relative to personal income. After rising over the prior decade to 4.2% of income in 2010-11, Wisconsin’s property tax burden now stands at 3.6%, the lowest since 1946.
    By type of government, town levies increased the most (3.0%), followed by the state (2.4%). School taxes increased 1.3% to $4.76 billion. A 48.9% drop in technical college taxes explains the overall drop in levies, according to WISTAX, a nonprofit research organization now in its 84th year.
    In 2014, the governor and legislature increased state aid spending for technical colleges by $406 million to “buy down” the colleges’ levies from $797 million to $407 million. Combined with state-imposed revenue limits on the 16 “tech college” districts, the jump in state aid forced down their property taxes.
    WISTAX notes that ever since the mid-2000s, it has been bipartisan state policy to restrict or freeze property tax growth while allowing little or no increase in state aid to local governments and school districts.
    The combination of state aid and local property taxes represent “the principal sources of income for local governments, and especially for school districts,” WISTAX observes.
    As a result, in real per capita terms, total revenues from property taxes and state aid (adjusted for inflation) peaked at $742 for municipalities and $799 for counties. WISTAX estimates that in 2015 these per capita amounts have decreased 10.1% to $667 for municipalities and 16.9% to $664 for counties.
    Final Property Tax Figures for 2014-15 Show 2.3% Drop
    As Share of Income, Tax Levels at Lowest Since 1946
    Comparable per student revenues for school districts climbed 44.1% to $11,995 during the 20 years ending in 2003 before peaking at $12,678 in 2011. In 2015, that figure stood at $11,620 per student.
    The WISTAX report, “Always on the state budget stage: The struggle to control property taxes,” is available by visiting www.wistax.org; emailing ; calling ; or writing WISTAX at 401 North Lawn Ave., Madison, WI .

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