According to a memo released by the Legislative Fiscal Bureau Wednesday, Gov. Jim Doyle’s budget could raise property taxes on a median-value home by $91, or 3.2 percent, this December.
The yearly memo lists estimates of effects of the biennium budget bill on property taxes, according to Rick Olin, fiscal analyst for the LFB.
“It sets the mark for the Legislature’s property tax programs and helps show what kind of impact on tax bills their actions will have,” Olin said.
Olin added property taxes increase every year because local governments need additional funding for cost increases on the services they provide. This year’s increase is about average in comparison to increases over the past 10 years.
The bureau estimated the tax bill on the median-value home would raise to $2,947 this December and increase another $134, or 4.5 percent, in December 2010.
The memo also estimated the median-value home is expected to be assessed at $166,685 this year, which is a drop of 3 percent from the previous year.
Doyle spokesperson Lee Sensenbrenner said the governor is committed to holding the line on property tax increases and making deep cuts in his budget.
Sensenbrenner added Doyle is urging schools to see the stimulus money as temporary funding so they can keep that money under their revenue caps and enable property taxes to be reduced by 50 percent.
Joint Committee on Finance Co-Chair Rep. Mark Pocan, D-Madison, said Doyle’s budget goes to great lengths to minimize negative impacts on average working families given the current economic downturn.
Pocan added property tax increases under previous administrations were actually higher than those proposed under Doyle’s budget.
“From 1998 through 2002, during the [Tommy] Thompson and [Scott] McCallum administrations, state taxpayers saw an average property tax increase of 4 percent,” Pocan said in a statement. “In some years, such as in 2001, the increase was as high as 10.5 percent.”
Rep. Phil Montgomery, R-Green Bay, a member of the Joint Committee on Finance, said Doyle’s decision to increase property taxes is a step in the wrong direction, and the memo proves the state’s misguided approach to the budget.
“Easing the cost controls and limits on government spending comes with a price, and that price won’t be paid by government,” Montgomery said. “It will be paid by homeowners and families who are already struggling to make ends meet.”
Montgomery added government leaders should be working to create jobs and stimulate the economy instead of increasing burdens on homeowners.
Senate Minority Leader Scott Fitzgerald, R-Juneau, also blasted the property tax increase created in Doyle’s budget, saying the added expense would burden already struggling families.
