Property taxes surge to highest levels in decades

Property taxes in Wisconsin this year are climbing by more than they have since 2007 — school taxes alone have posted their largest increase in more than three decades — causing taxpayers to fume, partisans to finger-point, and touching off a renewed debate about how the state funds public schools as another election cycle ramps up.

According to a December 2025 report by the Wisconsin Policy Forum, gross statewide property tax levies are on pace to rise by roughly 5 percent this year, higher than last year’s 4.4 percent and the largest increase in 18 years. 

Ground zero of the surge is a sharp kick-up in K-12 school property taxes, which are increasing by 7.8 percent on December bills — the biggest jump since 1992 — driven by state budget decisions and a record number of voter-approved local referenda.

Republicans blame Democratic Gov. Tony Evers and his use of the partial veto to create a 400-year school tax increase, while Democrats say GOP lawmakers have underfunded public education, forcing school districts to turn to local taxpayers through referenda to exceed levy limits. 

With property tax bills arriving across the state, both sides are sharpening their policy axes ahead of what is expected to be a highly competitive governor’s race.

School levies drive the spike

In its report, the Wisconsin Policy Forum found that property tax levies for all K-12 school districts combined are expected to rise by approximately $476.1 million this year, bringing the total statewide school levy to about $6.58 billion.

“This would be the largest percentage increase since 1992 to these gross tax levies, which account for nearly half of all property taxes statewide,” the report states. “It also would be a significant bump from last year’s 5.7 percent statewide school levy increase, which at the time was the biggest annual increase since 2009.”

The report identifies three primary drivers behind the increase.

“First, lawmakers and Gov. Tony Evers maintained the state’s increase in the state’s per pupil revenue limit on districts at $325 per year, a limit set in the 2023-25 budget through the governor’s partial veto,” the report states. “This limit governs how much school revenues can rise from the combination of general school aids and property taxes, which are districts’ two primary sources of revenue.”

That veto also extended the annual increase through 2425, meaning districts are allowed to raise revenues by that amount each year for 400 years.

That decision alone to maintain the state’s increase in the state’s per pupil revenue limit would likely have increased K-12 property tax levies, the Policy Forum report stated. However, the report maintained, a second budget decision to freeze state general school aid also contributed to the record property tax increase.

“Typically, a portion of the per-pupil revenue limit increase is covered by rising state general school aids,” the report stated. “ … Nearly every two-year budget over the past two decades has included at least one annual increase in general school aids, a form of aid that is distributed to school districts based on factors including property values, spending, and enrollment.”

Instead, the Policy Forum continued, state leaders kept funding for those payments flat, leaving property taxes as the sole means by which school districts could collectively access the allowed $325-per-student increase.

“School districts can choose to increase their levy by less than the allowed limit,” the report stated. “Rising pressure on both revenues and expenditures, however, appears to have prompted many districts to levy at or near the maximum amount. These pressures include rising teacher salaries and inflation, revenue limit increases in recent years that lagged the rate of inflation, and decreased funding associated with declining student enrollment and the expiration of federal pandemic relief funds.”

All that in turn led to voters approving a historically large number of school referenda in fall 2024 and again in spring 2025, authorizing districts to exceed state-imposed levy limits. In a previous report, the Forum found that, in 2024, 241 school referenda were held, with 138 in the fall elections and 103 in the spring. That represented the most school referenda ever in a single year, narrowly surpassing the previous record of 240 in 1998, the Forum reported.

“Taken together, these factors help explain why 28.7 percent of districts see a levy increase of more than 10 percent in 2025, according to the preliminary data,” the report states. 

One additional factor that contributed to the tax increases was the growth in enrollment and payments for private school choice programs, the Policy Forum asserted. 

“Under the state’s complex K-12 funding system, growth in publicly funded private school enrollment can contribute to property tax increases,” the report stated. “In addition, the 2025-27 state budget raised the amount paid per enrolled student in these programs, further increasing their impact.”

Districts large and small feel the heat

The increase is not confined to any one region or type of district.

“… [W]hile the largest increases in total property tax levy would come from large school districts, property tax levy increases of more than 30 percent happened in both large suburban districts like Wauwatosa and small, rural districts like Bruce in north-central Wisconsin and Markesan in south-central Wisconsin,” the report stated.

In Beloit, the district’s levy nearly tripled, rising from $5.6 million in 2024 to $16.2 million in 2025 — a 190-percent increase, despite voters rejecting a fall referendum.

The report attributes that spike largely to a $9.8 million drop in Beloit’s state general school aids, which fell from $68.1 million to $58.4 million. Under state law, districts may make up such losses by raising property taxes up to their authorized per pupil revenue limit.

In Madison, property taxes increased by $81.1 million, accounting for roughly 17 percent of the total statewide increase in school levies. The Madison Metropolitan School District suffered a general aid decline of $11.9 million.

Beyond K-12 schools, county property taxes are also increasing, though at a more moderate pace. County levies are expected to rise by 2.9 percent, or $78.3 million, to a total of $2.63 billion.

“This more than doubles the increase from last year, which was the smallest bump in more than a decade,” the report stated. “County property taxes typically grow between 1 percent and 3 percent annually, putting this increase on the high end of the typical range in recent years.”

Bayfield County and Forest County endured some of the largest percentage increases, at 18.6 percent and 16.9 percent, respectively, while Milwaukee County and Dane County recorded the largest dollar increases at $10.3 million and $11.7 million.

In Oneida County, property taxes rose to $18.97 million, an increase of 3.7 percent from $18.29 million.

Five counties are reducing their levies, topped by Juneau County’s 17.4 percent, or $4 million, drop. In comparison, 2024 saw 20 counties decrease their levy, the report stated.

The Policy Forum attributed the county levy increases to inflation, rising employee compensation, the end of federal pandemic aid, comparatively smaller levy increases in 2024, and it observed that counties have limited options for raising general revenues with property tax and local option sales taxes the top go-to sources. 

“Property tax increases are limited by state law, and sales taxes can only be imposed up to 0.5 percent, except in Milwaukee County, which has a tax of 0.9 percent,” the report stated. “Most counties have already imposed a sales tax, with Waukesha and Winnebago counties the only remaining hold-outs. One of the few remaining tools for many counties is the local option vehicle registration fee, though more counties impose that fee each year.”

Levies for Wisconsin’s technical colleges are expected to rise by 2.1 percent, the slowest growth of the three major property tax levies, from $516 million to $526.7 million, while special districts — such as sewerage and lake management districts — are reporting levy growth of 3.8 percent, the Forum reported.

Then, too, the Forum pointed out that, unlike in some previous years, the legislature and governor did not include additional funding in the state budget to increase property tax credits that would offset higher levies.

“In some years, increases in the state school levy tax credit and other credits can blunt part of the impact of school and local government property tax increases on taxpayers,” the report stated. “However, like general school aids, the Legislature and Evers did not include any funding in the final budget to increase state property tax credits. This means that property owners will feel the full impact of these increases on net property tax bills.”

While the Policy Forum noted that state and local taxes have declined as a share of personal income for decades, hitting another record low in 2024, it also acknowledged that rising housing and total cost-of-living increases could intensify taxpayer backlash.

What’s more, the report asserted, the issue for taxpayers could get hotter before it gets cooler.

“Given the 2025-27 budget provisions and ongoing school referenda, it’s possible and even likely that next year will see tax increases of similar magnitude,” the report stated. “State law will provide another $325 per pupil revenue increase but again no increase in state general school aids or property tax credits. The increase in special education aid will also be smaller than this year.”

Absent some special action by the state Legislature and governor early next year, property taxpayers will likely see more of the same in December 2026, the Policy Forum concluded, and, if past is prologue, that could result in policy shifts.

“In response to a run of nearly 8 percent annual increases to the statewide K-12 levy — and higher county and municipal levy increases — in the early 1990s, state leaders instituted a number of legislative changes, including the creation of per pupil revenue limits and a goal of two-thirds state funding for schools,” the report stated. “With these provisions no longer limiting property tax increases as successfully, policymakers may find themselves revisiting the question in upcoming years.”

Why wait

In the wake of the report’s release, Republicans and Democrats weren’t waiting for upcoming years to revisit the issue, or at least to begin laying blame on their opponents’ shoulders.

Even before the report’s release, Republicans were castigating Democrats for what they knew would be higher property tax bills, arguing that the governor bears primary responsibility for the surge and pointing to his budget bill partial veto, which extended the $325-per-pupil revenue limit for centuries.

U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany (R-Wisconsin-07), a leading candidate for governor, launched a statewide digital advertising campaign this month tied directly to rising property tax bills. Tiffany said Wisconsinites were feeling the full brunt of what he called Evers’s 400-year property tax increase, created through the veto and upheld by the state Supreme Court.

“I know many of you are opening your property tax bills and feeling blindsided,” Tiffany said. “There is no reason Wisconsin should rank among the top ten for highest property taxes in the U.S. alongside Illinois, New Jersey, and New York. Making Wisconsin affordable starts with ensuring you are never taxed out of your home. As governor, I will end Tony Evers’ 400-year property tax hike and lower your taxes.”

Republican lawmakers also argued that because the revenue limit increase was extended indefinitely, future Legislatures may be forced to allow property tax increases even without either voter or legislative approval.

In an Op-Ed, Republican lawmaker Karen Hurd (R-Withee) wrote that, during the budget process last session, the legislature reached an agreement with the governor on shared revenue and education. 

“As part of this agreement, the Legislature agreed to increase general aid to school districts by $325 per pupil in each year of the two-year budget and to increase the revenue limits by this amount to allow school districts to spend this increased revenue,” Hurd wrote.

This session, Hurd continued, the legislature once again reached an agreement on education funding with Evers during budget deliberations. 

“The priority for the governor was to provide an increase in funding for special education reimbursements for school districts instead of per-pupil funding,” she wrote. “The budget that the Legislature approved delivers on that priority with an additional $504.7 million in special education funding over the two-year budget.”

However, Hurd stated, because the special education funding falls outside of school districts’ revenue limits, many Wisconsinites are receiving a Christmas surprise of higher property taxes courtesy of Evers’s veto extending the per pupil revenue increases in perpetuity. 

“According to the nonpartisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau, only 58 of Wisconsin’s 421 school districts did not levy the maximum amount allowed by the governor’s veto,” she wrote. “So, while Wisconsinites celebrated Christmas, many were also forced to figure out how to pay their higher property taxes.”

Democrats blame GOP budget choices

Democrats countered that Republican lawmakers failed to adequately fund public education, leaving districts little choice but to raise taxes locally.

Rep. Joe Sheehan (D-Sheboygan) said the 2025-27 state budget gave districts an impossible choice: increase property taxes to keep up with rising costs, or cut programming. 

“Many districts have had to do both,” Sheehan said. “The state budget lacked the necessary level of investment in public education. We at the state have an obligation to ensure every student receives the best education we can give them.”

After more than 30 years working in education, Sheehan said he could not be asked to turn his back on that commitment. 

“Indeed, the budget included an increase to special education reimbursement funding from the state, representing an increase to 42 percent in the 2025-2026 school year and 45 percent in the 2026-2027 school year,” he said. “However, new projections from DPI show that due to rising costs to provide special education, this money will cover only 35 percent of special education costs.”

Democratic legislative leaders echoed that theme, arguing that GOP majorities shifted the tax burden from the state to local property owners.

Will Karcz, communications director for the State Senate Democratic Committee (SSDC), said the people of Wisconsin deserved a legislature that had their backs and was fighting to cut costs.

“Unfortunately the Republican majorities in Madison are failing on all fronts,” Karcz said. “Their refusal to fund public education forces communities to pick up the slack, and we have seen record high referendums across the state as a result.”

Speaking on PBS’s Here & Now, Assembly Democratic minority leader Greta Neubauer (D-Racine) said affordability would be a major issue in the midterms, and property tax increases were part and parcel of that issue. 

“We, of course, run into our constituents at parades and holiday festivals, and we hear over and over that people are struggling with the cost of groceries, again, prescription drugs and health care and housing,” Neubauer said. “There’s been a little bit of progress on housing in a bipartisan fashion in the last two sessions. That’s good to see, but we have not done enough, and so we’re really going to be continuing to push on those issues and making sure that the state keeps its commitment to our kids and our public schools and gets some funding into the general aids so that we don’t see property taxes go up for people across the state to support their schools.”

People need to see more support from the state for their local schools, Neubauer said.

“Or they are going to continue to have to go to referendum and raise their property taxes, and that’s just wrong,” she said.

The Policy Forum report also observed that, with income tax cuts in the most recent state budget, along with rising incomes, it is likely the average tax burden will remain relatively low.

“The income tax cuts represent a choice on state leaders’ part to prioritize using the state’s budget surplus to reduce some taxes instead of providing school funding to limit property tax increases (or increasing funding for other government services),” the report stated. “This choice is in line with a trend since 2011 in Wisconsin of falling spending on K-12 education as a share of personal income. It also means that the responsibility for paying for local government services, especially schools, is shifting more heavily to property taxpayers this year than it otherwise might have.”

On the one hand, the Policy Forum observed that the shift gives local school boards and voters control over their preferred level of taxation and spending. 

“On the other hand, it also risks a widening gap in education funding between districts in which residents have the capacity and desire to pay higher property taxes, and those that do not,” the report asserted.

Richard Moore is the author of “Dark State” and may be reached at richardd3d.substack.com.