Not surprisingly, the Journal-Sentinel headlined the the drop of $59 in property taxes on average-priced home in the region. To the J-S's credit, they do mention the decrease in property values across Southeastern Wisconsin, and as the following table shows, that $59 was far outstripped by a loss in average home values for this year, continuing a trend from 2010 to 2011.
These numbers create an interesting conundrum if you're trying to justify that Walker's tax policies are working, because you could say the best example of it "working" is in Walker's former home of Milwaukee County, where the average tax bill has dropped by more than $100. However, it also means that the average home price in Milwaukee County has dropped by $20,000, and the tax RATE has climbed by over 10%, which hurts homeowners whose homes have kept their value.
Same trend has happened in the pro-Walker 262 suburbs, as Ozaukee Couty's rate is up nearly 3% the last 2 years, Washington and Waukesha each up over 5.5%, and Walworth tax rates up nearly 7%. This can hit many suburban and rural areas that don't revalue homes each year, and can mean the homeowner gets the double-whammy of lower overall home values, which hurts their ability to sell their homes, combined with higher taxes due to a lack of a revaluation.
With schools continuing to be devastated by Walker's cuts and retirements continuing to happen at a heavy clip, do you see any reason the suburbs will have their home values go up any time in the near future? Of course not - good schools and the livability that results from them are the only reasons to live in a place like Germantown or Grafton. And now these advantages are being taken away for what? Saving a total of $5 a month on tax-deductible property taxes? As I mentioned last year, was it really worth it to screw up our state's great services and bottom out your home values for a handful of bucks on your tax bill?
You'll find out the hard way soon enough, because here's the biggest catch. Act 10 "savings" were a one-time shot that may have taken some of the costs out of the equation for 1 year, but kept the lower property tax limits for future years. Nothing new has been created from taking this money out of the economy (certainly no jobs were created). The miniscule tax savings are far outweighed by the thousands of dollars in lost wealth from the home market drying up and the state's economic downturn continuing in the age of Fitzwalkerstan, proving once again how much a sucker those rural and suburban folk were for keeping these policies in place for the next 2 years.
Watch the howling begin over the next year-and-a-half when the average homeowner realizes how much they have lost from this deal, both in the quality of their services (which'll go down with no ability to pay for them), and in the tanking of their home values. Well, far too many of you chose to pick a slight drop taxes over a higher quality of life, and now we'll all the pay the price for it.
In the long term though, it shouldn't be that hard to rebuild the quality of some schools, at least in the wealthy Milwaukee suburbs. They can always go to referendum if they want, and I would predict many will.
ReplyDeleteThey can also be bailed out if Western Wisconsin throws out GOP incumbents in 2012 and 2014.
So I wouldn't worry about Germantown and Grafton. They'll be fine in the long run. But it might be a death blow for places like Highland, Cuba City, Florence, and Greenwood.
Then again, if some of these smaller districts are forced to bite the bullet and consolidate, that might also set them up to do better once we have a governor and legislature that don't have a vendetta against public education--it's hard to really offer advanced classes, fine arts, and a variety of vocational classes when you have a senior class of 40.
I've heard folks justifying a vote for Walker simply on the basis of those tax savings. Can't help but wonder if one person's savings is worth the loss of the collective bargaining rights of thousands. Or the voting rights of thousands. Or the worst jobs record in the U.S. I could go on and on, but are tax savings really worth all the trouble Walker is creating in other areas? Really?
ReplyDeleteAlex- Agree that small-town Wisconsin are the ones really being hurt and will be screwed much worse (which is what makes rural Wisconsin's GOP votes all the more head-shaking). But the difference is that small-town Wisconsin isn't as likely to use "great schools" as a reason to attract people to live there like the 262 suburbs do. And those same goofballs in the 262 brag about their low taxes that comes from their "sprawl, sprawl, sprawl" strategy. That isn't going to work by 2014.
ReplyDeleteDQ- Hence this post. The people who vote for Walker because they saved $30 while losing thousands in wages and home values are the definition of cutting off your nose to spite your face. Maybe one day they'll look in a mirror and see how stupid and ugly this looks (big maybe, I know).