Feeling the Property Tax Burn? Vote April 7th, 2026!
- goddess422
- 1 day ago
- 4 min read
—Wisconsin Assembly District 32 Representative, Amanda Nedweski
Seismic sticker shock is resonating throughout Wisconsin as real estate owners open their property tax bills. Largely driven by a 7.8% statewide average tax hike in K-12 education—the largest in three decades—residents of Kenosha Unified School District are bearing the burden of the third highest increase in the state, just after Madison and Milwaukee. Decades of school board fiscal mismanagement, declining enrollment, and the drying up of millions in temporary federal pandemic relief dollars are major factors in the increase.
However, Governor Evers’ 400-year Democrat property tax increase in the 2023-2025 state budget is where most of the blame lies today and will lie for the next four centuries if people don’t wise up and vote smarter in local and state elections. Remember, your local elected officials set the property tax levies, so voting in April is how you have a say in what you are investing in for schools, public safety, human services, infrastructure, and public works.
Under conservative County Executive Samantha Kerkman’s leadership, Kenosha County has successfully kept the county property tax levy relatively flat over the past four years, despite record inflation caused by reckless spending and irresponsible fiscal policy during the Biden Administration. Kerkman’s leadership to shift spending priorities toward public safety investments has made our communities safer and helped the county retain talented personnel as we face increasing wage pressure with competition from Lake County. She also continues to collaborate with community partners and businesses to grow local economic development in ways that shift some of the property tax burden away from homeowners. For 2025, the county adopted a budget that actually reduced the county tax on a median-valued home for the fourth straight year. The county mill rate decreased by 4.1%. This is what we voted for!
With historic increases in local government funding passed by the Republican-led legislature in the 2023-25 state budget, there is now more revenue coming in to offset the increases in costs for critical services like EMS, police, and fire at the local level. However, pressure on municipal property taxes in our area is largely driven by rising property values, as the increasing demand for housing drives up assessments. (Thanks, Biden!) Nonetheless, this pales in comparison to the whopping 8.4% rise in KUSD’s tax rate this year.
A recent report by the nonpartisan Wisconsin Policy Forum explains how Governor Evers’ irresponsible use of the partial veto in the 2023-25 budget allows local school boards to increase their property taxes every year for the next 400 years. While the state does not levy property taxes, they do set levy limits. With one stroke of his pen, Evers’ turned a temporary two-year provision into a four century democrat property tax increase—never debated, never voted on, never approved by taxpayers. School boards are not forced to levy at the maximum rate, but it would appear that KUSD did not get voters’ hint when their massive referendum failed last Spring.
Last February, KUSD begged residents to allow them to exceed the levy limit by $23 Million each year for 5 years. Not surprisingly, voters shouted a resounding “NO.” When less than 30% of students can read or perform basic math at grade level, it‘s no surprise that taxpayers are not interested in throwing money at a failing system.
The state school funding formula is based on enrollment, so when there are less students, schools receive less in total state aid. Largely driven by declining birthrates, shrinking school populations mean less revenue. KUSD has been losing students each year for decades. However, the state has not “cut” school funding. In fact, in 2023, the Legislature invested a record $1.2 Billion in new money for K-12. Despite years of warnings by administrators, liberal KUSD school boards have continually ignored the fiscal impact of declining enrollment. Their massive deficit is the direct result of their own liberal ineptitude.
In the 2025-27 state budget, the Legislature did not provide an increase general state aid to schools because they knew that taxpayers would already be hit hard by the property tax impact Governor Evers’ 400 year veto. Even if they had increased general aid, school districts would still have been able to take the maximum increase in property taxes. It would have been a double-whammy for taxpayers, and Republicans know this is not a sustainable spending model. The Legislature is not obligated to increase general aid, and they are certainly not obligated to use state dollars to backfill the atrocious effect of the Evers veto. Whether you’re taxed locally or through the state, it’s ALL your money. Some people are looking out for you, and some are not. Voting in local elections is critical!
Instead of more state aid, the Legislature listened to school districts’ greatest needs and made historic investments of over $500 Million in special education cost reimbursements and youth mental health. Targeted aid has proven to be much more effective. Until taxpayers start seeing better outcomes in core subjects, it is unlikely that support for spending more on K-12 will swell among working Wisconsinites who are already struggling with the affordability crises left behind by Joe Biden.
