Budget Highlight: Property Taxes
Welcome back to another edition of the Sortwell Scoop, where we’ll be talking about a new budget highlight from the 6/29 session.
This week, I wanted to focus on how we planned to reduce property taxes. When Republicans decided to provide a historic investment in our K–12 schools, we didn’t want local property taxpayers to have to be the ones to pay the price. Instead, we decided to spend over $600 million to reduce the property tax burden in our state. Although that was our original intention, Governor Evers had something different in mind. As I’ve mentioned previously, Evers left the property tax reductions passed by Republicans in place for the current biennium, but with the use of his line-item veto, he raised property taxing authority by local school boards for the next four hundred years. This irresponsible veto creates significant uncertainty and opens the possibility of billions of dollars in property tax hikes.
Thankfully, we will still see one of the oldest taxes in Wisconsin’s history taken off the table. The personal property tax, paid by businesses in our state, is one of the most burdensome taxes we have in Wisconsin, requiring businesses to repeatedly pay an annual tax on their physical possessions. Due to a multitude of exemptions, this tax has come to predominantly impact small business owners’ furniture and fixtures. Over time, we have seen this tax harm our local businesses and stifle their growth, which is why our budget, in combination with Act 12 (the shared revenue bill), will enact meaningful tax relief for small business owners statewide while holding local governments harmless. We will see this go into effect for the January 2024 assessment.
To listen to what I have to say about this issue, click here or on the photo above.
In-District Events
The Manitowoc County Fair will be August 23 through the 27th at the Manitowoc County Fair Grounds. For more information, visit Manitowoc County – Manitowoc County Fair – Manitowoc County (manitowoccountywi.gov).
Sunday, August 27th, will be the St. Clare Parish Picnic at Greenleaf Fireman’s Park, starting at 10 a.m.
The first annual Heiknbrew will be Friday, September 8th, from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. at 3000 Hawthorne Ave. in Two Rivers. For more information regarding this event, visit https://www.
Saturday, September 9th, will be Firefest at the Wayside Volunteer Fire Department from 1 p.m. until 11:30 p.m.
