Reports by issue topic
Spending and taxing
The Public Policy Forum conducts studies on state and federal tax policy and analyzes the taxing behavior of 147 units of government in Southeastern Wisconsin, including the 84 villages and cities situated in seven counties – Kenosha, Milwaukee, Ozaukee, Racine, Walworth, Washington, and Waukesha.
| Property Values and Taxes in Southeast Wisconsin |
July, 2010 |
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| full report |
| For the past several years, the Public Policy Forum has produced annual reports analyzing property values and property taxes within the seven-county southeast Wisconsin region. Our purpose is to shed light on an important indicator of regional economic health and how it impacts the fiscal health and capacity of local governments and school districts.
This year’s report first examines 2009 property values, with specific consideration of multi-year trends. We then analyze 2010 budgeted tax levies and tax rates of southeast Wisconsin counties and municipalities to explore the relationship between valuations and taxes.
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| Budget Brief: Milwaukee County 2010 Executive Budget |
October, 2009 |
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| full report |
| The 2010 recommended budget contains familiar proposals to privatize county services, maximize state and federal revenue sources, and eliminate small programs deemed outside of the county's "core mission". Those strategies are utilized less than in previous years, however, in recognition that a piecemeal approach no longer is tenable.
By taking on the county's wage and benefit structure, the recommended budget instead attempts a more long-term approach. This paper will point out the potential shortcomings associated with the county executive's strategy, but there can be little argument with the general need to do something about wages and benefits in light of the magnitude of the county's structural deficit. It is critical, in fact, that the debate at the county board not be about whether significant alterations in employee and retiree compensation are necessary, but about whether the specific package of wage and benefit concessions proposed by the county executive is fair, realistic and achievable, and what happens if it is not.
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| City of Milwaukee's Fiscal Condition: Between a Rock and a Hard Place |
August, 2009 |
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| full report |
| This report presents an analysis of the fiscal condition of the City of Milwaukee government, applying a professional financial evaluation system of the International City/County Management Association (ICMA). The city conducted this type of analysis internally during the 1990s, but it has done nothing similar this decade. In March 2009, the Forum released an evaluation of the finances of Milwaukee County also using the ICMA methodology.
Milwaukee's city government currently is experiencing serious financial difficulties. The recession hit Milwaukee hard, as it has the region and state, and the negative impact on Milwaukee's businesses and property values has had financial repercussions on city coffers. In addition, the massive decline in stock prices has devalued pension investments. While ranked the second most secure public pension fund in the nation prior to the economic downturn, Milwaukee's pension fund now has an unfunded liability of more than $700 million.
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| Property Values and Taxes in Southeastern Wisconsin |
August, 2009 |
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| full report |
| County and municipal finance officials in Southeastern Wisconsin soon will receive word from the State of Wisconsin regarding 2009 property valuations within their jurisdictions. That information, in turn, is likely to have a significant bearing on 2010 budget deliberations, as property valuations determine whether county and municipal officials can generate increased property tax revenues without increasing property tax rates.
For the past several years, the Public Policy Forum has produced annual reports on property values and property taxes within the seven-county Southeastern Wisconsin region, breaking down the numbers by both municipality and county. This year, we combine the property values and property tax reports as we seek to shed light on the depth of the challenges likely to be faced by local officials in the face of stagnant property values and growing fiscal needs. |
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| Milwaukee County-Funded Parks and Cultural Institutions |
November, 2008 |
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| full report |
| The Public Policy Forum’s role in the Audit of Greater Milwaukee’s Regional Cultural Assets
was to examine the fiscal condition of those cultural assets owned and/or funded by Milwaukee
County: the Milwaukee Public Museum, Marcus Center for the Performing Arts, Milwaukee
County War Memorial Center, Milwaukee County Historical Society, Charles Allis Museum,
Villa Terrace Decorative Art Museum, Milwaukee County Cultural Artistic and Musical
Programming Advisory Council, Milwaukee County Zoo and Milwaukee County Parks. |
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| Property tax rates on the rise: trend or anomaly? |
July, 2008 |
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| full report |
| This year’s increase in the gross tax rate marked the first such increase in southeastern Wisconsin since at least 2001. The increase was small ($0.03), but may portend coming changes in property tax trends.
Data from 2001 and later indicate that as the basic cost of running government has increased, so has the gross levy amount. This increasing levy has been cushioned by increasing property values, which have allowed municipal governments to decrease the tax rate applied to property owners each year.
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| 2008 Southeastern Wisconsin property values report |
March 28, 2008 |
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| research brief |
| Property values in southeastern Wisconsin counties grew 6% last year, a relatively healthy rate but the
slowest since at least 2004, and for some counties, the past decade. Also, proximity to northern Illinois looks
to be a key factor in fueling strong growth. |
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| Southeastern Wisconsin property taxes 2007 |
August, 2007 |
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| full report |
| This year for the first time the Public Policy Forum has released a pullout poster ranking the property values and tax rates of all the municipalities in southeastern Wisconsin. The poster ranks all 147 municipalities in six different categories: property values, per capita property value, 5-year change in property values, gross tax levy, 5-year change in the tax levy, and net tax rate. |
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| Property tax levy rises 4.6% in SE Wisconsin |
June, 2007 |
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| full report |
| A year ago when our annual tax analysis found the smallest increase in the property tax levy in five years,
we wondered if that would be the start of a trend. It wasn’t. In retrospect, the relatively small increase of
2.4% was an anomaly. This year, the levy increased 4.6% in southeastern Wisconsin, and as the chart below
shows, is similar to increases in previous years. The chart also shows the growth in the gross tax levy total for
the entire state. Last year, the gross tax levy total for the state was virtually unchanged; in 2007, the increase
is 4.6%, same as in southeastern Wisconsin. |
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| 2007 Southeastern Wisconsin property values report |
April, 2007 |
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| full report |
| Property values in the seven counties that make up southeastern Wisconsin were up significantly in two areas – the city of Milwaukee, where the tax base grew rapidly, fueling the rest of the region, and Walworth County, now the richest county in the region in terms of per-capita property wealth. |
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