What Happened with Property Taxes?
Topics for this post:
- The Property Tax Increase
- Listening Sessions (a.k.a. Town Halls)
- Permanent Changes to City Hall Hours
- Climbing “Wall” at Neshotah Park
- City stays out of PFAS class action suit
The Property Tax Increase
We’ve all opened our property tax bills this week, and judging from Facebook there are a lot of frustrated, confused, and angry people.
What Can You Do About It
Let me start by saying that I don’t have the answers. I can tell you what I think will and won’t work, but it’s just my opinion.
- Assessment: If you didn’t fight it during the process a couple months ago, it’s my opinion that you missed your chance. Learn how to fight it, maybe hire your own assessor next year (about $250) and try to get it lowered. However, don’t let me stop you from calling and emailing the assessor to demand answers. Let me know if it works.
- City Budget/Taxes: The 2025 budget is now approved. Attending those meetings, or at the very least contacting city council members to voice your opinion, is critical to the process. While significant outrage could potentially convince council to amend the budget, I don’t know if it’s possible to lower the tax rate after it’s been approved. However, showing up at council meetings (Monday the 16th at 6 pm) to speak at public comment period is by far the most effect way to affect change in Two rivers.
- School Budget/Taxes: I’m not close to what happens on the school board, but looking through the district’s explanation (very bottom of this page), it just looks like they mismanaged the finances. I could be wrong. Showing up at school board meetings (January 13th, 5:45 pm, TRHS room 218) and voicing your anger during public comment is probably wise.
What is a Revaluation?
By Wisconsin law, once every five years a city must revalue (reassess) every home to within 10% of what it would sell for if put up for sale. The state requires this to ensure that everyone in the community is paying their fair share compared to other residents. The effect of a citywide revaluation is not the same as when individual homes are reassessed. Put simply, doubling your assessment during a citywide revaluation does not mean your taxes double.
Here’s an example:
- Your New Neighbor: Your neighbor bought their home last year, after home prices have spiked nationwide. Their property is reassessed when they bought it and is valued accurately at $150,000 – the price they paid for it.
- Your Home: You’ve lived in your house for 19 years, the last time Two Rivers did a revaluation. It’s still assessed at $50,000 from when you bought it. Meanwhile, the value of your home – what someone would pay for it if you tried to sell – has gone up with the rest of the market. Judging from recent sales of nearby homes it would sell today for $150,000.
Without revaluation, you’re paying 1/3 of the amount of taxes your neighbor is, even though both properties are worth the same today. So the idea is to assess all the homes at once and make it fair for everyone. If everyone’s assessed value goes up an average of 94.4% (it did this year) the city doesn’t double the taxes they collect… They get no more taxes because on average everyone went up.
If you’re saying, “but I could never sell my home for that much!” You might be right. Go to Zillow and search for Two Rivers, then set these filters:
- Change “For Sale” to “Sold.”
- Set the bedrooms and bathrooms to match yours (check “exact match” too).
- Under “More,” make things match your home as much as possible, and change “Sold in Last” to 6 months.
Find three homes within about a mile of your house that are similar to yours. You’ve now done about 75% of what an assessor does. That’s roughly what your home is worth.
How are Taxes Calculated
The city recently went through the budget approval process, which I’ve written about earlier at Two Rivers Matters, that includes setting the tax rate for the city. Those have been approved by City Council and aren’t going to change.
Property taxes are based on your home’s assessed value and the four entities below, which is how the majority of the country does it:
- City of Two Rivers: Covers local services like police, fire, public works, and parks.
- Manitowoc County: Helps fund county-wide services like courts, public health, and infrastructure.
- Two Rivers Public Schools: Supports teachers, school programs, and building maintenance.
- Lakeshore Technical College: Funds local higher education and training programs.
To calculate your tax, the city looks at your property’s assessed value and applies a tax rate. Each of the four entities sets their tax rate independently of each other, so the city has no say in how the school district does it, as an example. Your tax bill shows how much goes to each entity.
Mr. Buckley’s slide below shows how much each entity increased (upper right). Notice that the city did not increase at all, deferring some debt payment and other needs to next year. You’ll also notice that the school increased by nearly 28%. They blame private vouchers, which is partially true, but they also did not manage the vouchers financial problem well, which is now the taxpayers’ problem.
You’ll also notice the five year trend in the table at the bottom. The story looks similar. The school district is wildly out of control despite massive additional funding during COVID.
Final Tax Hike Thoughts
I don’t know why the city chose to not do assessments for 19 years. I don’t know why the school board is managing its finances so poorly. But they did. And next year is going to be bad too… They’ve hinted at it on camera at meetings twice lately.
It’s time to speak up. It’s time to demand our city leaders start listening to its residents. And frankly, it’s probably time to vote them out. Did I mention I’m running for City Council?
City Council Meeting
Listening Sessions (a.k.a. Town Halls)
Huge win for the residents, and glad to get help from Ms. Derby and Mr. Stechmesser on getting these pushed forward. I wrote about them here in a previous post.
Permanent Changes to City Hall Hours
City is looking to change City Hall hours permanently, closing at 11:30 am on Fridays.
Climbing “Wall” at Neshotah Park
More playground additions to Neshotah Park are coming. Funding for these two items are coming from a $100,000 grant from the West Foundation, and $20,000 from the room tax (tourism) fund.
So it’s kind of free. This is one of those times where tourism dollars are going toward something that benefits local residents, and especially families.
You can see Parks Director Mike Mathis’ presentation to the Rec Advisory Board here.
City Stays Out of PFAS Class Action Suit
PFAS are man-made chemicals used in things like non-stick pans, water-resistant clothing, and firefighting foam. They’re called “forever chemicals” because they don’t break down and can build up in water, soil, and our bodies.
In Two Rivers we’ve found PFAS in our drinking water. While the 0.68 levels are below the hazardous limit of 1.00, it’s monitored because PFAS have been linked to health problems like cancer and liver damage.
The city has to monitor and manage PFAS in our water and sewage sludge, but I don’t know off the top of my head what that costs are. Council members previously opted out of settlements with 3M and Dupont to preserve the right to sue later. The city attorney walked through the details: Future litigation would cost $500,000 to $1 million, with no guarantee of success, and it would require identifying exactly which company is responsible for PFAS in Two Rivers’ water.
You see where I’m going with this… I think there is no chance we’ll sue in the future and we probably should have just taken the $40,000-60,000 and been done with it. Council approved not joining the settlement, with the only dissenting vote being Mr. Bittner.
Read the meeting minutes here.
Meeting Agenda Packet
You can read the full packet that council members get here:
MEET-Packet-238acda4816e4464ade70c10466cdf0b.pdf
In reply to school levy and the increase explanation….Has it been addressed, why are the numbers growing of students leaving to attend other out of district public/private schools. What is the TR district lacking that contributes to this movement.
It’s only been addressed in the letter at the bottom of the post. I don’t stay very close to school board stuff, but my cursory read of it tells me that they have mismanaged finances over the past few years. They blame vouchers, but if the trend of students leaving is going up, then what budget cuts (or investments to reverse it) are being done?
LB Clarke (middle school) and Koenig (elementary) are really struggling, from what I understand. I’ve been told by people closer to it that LB Clarke has an administration problem, and Koenig is way overextended on SPED.
I think change at the school board is needed desperately. I do know that Kathy Dahlke is running in the Spring election, who I support, but not sure who else will be on the ballot.