The only side that now wants to cut property taxes in Wisconsin? Gov Evers and Dems!

Every budget cycle, the Legislative Fiscal Bureau releases an analysis of what would happen to property taxes on a median-priced Wisconsin home if the Governor’s budget would go through. The 2025-27 budget’s version on that breakdown of property tax bills was recently released by the LFB, and it goes over the main factors in the budget that would affect how much Wisconsin homeowners would pay.

For school districts, the Governor's budget bill (SB 45/AB 50) would make several changes that would affect statewide school levies, including: (a) indexing the current law $325 per pupil adjustment under revenue limits to inflation starting in 2025-26 (estimated by the Administration at $334 in 2025-26 and $345 in 2026-27); (b) increasing the low revenue adjustment under revenue limits from $11,000 per pupil in 2024-25 to $12,000 per pupil in 2025-26 and $12,400 per pupil in 2026-27; and (c) providing $494 million in 2025-26 and $700 million in 2026-27 for state aid under general school aids. SB 45/AB 50 would also make a modification to the definition of revenue limits so that the personal property aid payment associated with the 2023 full exemption of all personal property from taxation would be under revenue limits, which would decrease school district levies by an estimated $57.4 million annually…..

….Beginning in 2026, counties and municipalities would be eligible to receive an aid payment from this newly-created program if their property tax levies in the year of the payment are less than or equal to their levies in the prior year (for the first year of payments, 2025(26) tax levies would be compared to 2024(25) levies). The amount of the payment would be equal to 3% of the county or municipality's payment year levy. After the first year of the program, if the county or municipality had received a payment in the prior year, the amount of its payment would be equal to 3% of its payment year tax levy, plus 1.03 multiplied by the payment it received in the prior year. The Administration estimates that this program would distribute $111.8 million in 2025-26 and $227.0 million in 2026-27. This aid program would be expected to reduce statewide county and municipal levies by an estimated $49.4 million in 2025(26) and by $108.5 million in 2026(27), compared to estimates of those levies under current law….

In addition to the changes that may affect the gross levies for local taxing jurisdictions, SB 45/AB 50 includes additional funding for the school levy tax credit. The bill would provide an additional $125.3 million in 2025-26 and $249.7 million in 2026-27, resulting in total funding for the credit of $1,400.3 million in 2025-26 and $1,524.7 million in 2026-27. Compared to current law, this would decrease net statewide property tax levies by the amount of the additional funding for the credit in each year.

So put it together with some relatively minor adjustments, and what do we get?

Total equalized values are expected to increase faster than the statewide median home value in both 2025(26) and 2026(27). As a result, the estimated property tax on a median-valued home will increase by less than the rate of change in overall levies in both years. Under the bills, statewide net property tax levies are estimated to increase by 1.3% in 2025(26) and by 2.4% in 2026(27). In comparison, the estimated net tax bill on a median-valued home is estimated to increase by 0.1% in 2025(26) and by 1.3% in 2026(27). Net tax bills are estimated at $3,421 for 2025(26) and $3,467 for 2026(27) under SB 45/AB 50, compared to $3,600 for 2025(26) and $3,761 for 2026(27) under current law.

And given that the LFB projects the median Wisconsin home value to go up by 6.5% this year and 3.0% in 2026, this means that the tax rates would continue to fall if Governor Evers’ property tax-related plans would be adopted.

The school funding plans aren't among the items that will be removed from Gov Evers' budget by Republicans on the Joint Finance Committee later this week (click here for the list) , but the incentive program for communities to freeze their taxes is on the chopping block.

Another item on that removal list is Evers; proposal to expand the state's Homestead Credit to catch up to inflation and higher Social Security incomes. The Homestead Credit offsets property taxes, and the income limits for it have not been increased since the Republicans took power in the State Legislature in 2011. Not surprisingly, this has cut the number of Homestead Credit recipients by nearly 2/3 in the state since then, and the LFB says that the amount of Homestead Credit paid out has gone down by an estimated $87.5 million.

So if Wisconsin Republicans want to keep property taxes from rising by another $344 in the next 2 years, keep tax rates from going up, and allow more Wisconsinites to get back some of their property tax payments with the Homestead Credit, they can go along with Governor Evers’ plans in the state budget. The GOPs should vote to increase resources for our community schools while limiting the taxes that pay for those K-12 schools, and can go along with Evers’ incentive payment for local governments that don’t raise property taxes.

Increasing state funding and reducing the burden of property taxes on Wisconsinites seems like a great way to use some of the $4 billion we have in the bank, and a much better idea than using those funds to cut income taxes for the rich. If the GOPs don’t go along with limiting property taxes while maintaining investments, every Dem across the state should directly blame Republicans next Winter if/when those tax bills go out to Wisconsin households.