FISCAL FACTS: School levies rise more rapidly, county levies slow down
By Wisconsin Policy Forum Gross K-12 property taxes in Wisconsin are expected to rise by the largest amount since 2009, spurred both by per pupil revenue limit increases and a historic number of approved school district referenda.
County property taxes, meanwhile, will rise by the lowest amount in the last decade. The overall picture is likely to cause Wisconsinites to see overall increases to their property tax bills that are in line with those of recent years — and possibly less than last year.
Property tax levies for K-12 schools will rise $327.2 million on bills mailed out this month to taxpayers, according to preliminary data from the Wisconsin Department of Revenue (DOR). The increase of 5.7% over last December’s gross property tax bills is the highest since 2009, though not far above last year’s 5.4% increase.
One key driver of the large K-12 property tax increase is property tax referenda. Last month, we found that 2024 set records for both the number of school district referenda held (241) and passed (169), and voters in nearly two-thirds of public school districts have approved at least one referendum since the beginning of 2021. Since then, a total of 390 referenda have been approved to increase district property taxes beyond state limits.
Another possible factor is that in the 2023-25 state budget, lawmakers agreed to increase the state per pupil revenue limit by $325 in both the 2023-24 and 2024-25 school years after freezing them for the previous two years amid high inflation.
The limit governs how much revenue schools can raise from state general school aids and property taxes combined – the two largest sources of K-12 revenue. In general, the larger the revenue limit increase, the larger the property tax increase – unless state lawmakers also significantly raise general school aids. General school aids rose by $224.9 million from 2023-24 to 2024-25, not enough to stave off levy increases.
County property taxes, meanwhile, will rise just 1.3% on the latest bills — the smallest increase in the last decade. Levies for the state’s 16 technical colleges will rise by 3.3% to $516.0 million, and special district property taxes will grow by 4% to $136.4 million.
Both increases are slightly smaller than those that took place in 2023. Data are not yet available for municipal or tax increment financing (TIF) districts, which make up the remainder of local property tax levies.
These DOR data represent gross property tax levies, meaning they do not account for state credits that reduce net tax bills for Wisconsin residents. These data reflect the outsized impact of school referenda on property tax levels, as they account for just under half of all local property tax levies in Wisconsin in any given year.
Readers also should note that this year’s property tax increases come amidst a longstanding trend of a falling state and local tax burden for Wisconsin residents. The declining tax burden has been accompanied by a longstanding decline in state spending on K-12 education, both as a share of residents’ incomes and relative to other states.
Local referenda have allowed some districts to resist these trends, but the rise of ballot measures has led to higher property taxes and may also be exacerbating differences between districts that succeed in passing them and those that do not.
This information is provided to Wisconsin Newspaper Association members as a service of the Wisconsin Policy Forum, the state’s leading resource for nonpartisan state and local government research and civic education. Learn more at wispolicyforum.org.
