Property taxes in southeast Wisconsin have gone down

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Total property taxes in southeast Wisconsin have gone down for the first time in at least 10 years. Milwaukee’s Public Policy Forum said the region had a three-tenths-of-one-percent drop in total local taxes in seven counties – although Milwaukee and Racine counties still had increases. The Policy Forum credits Governor Scott Walker’s state-imposed limits on local tax hikes for the overall tax break in the region. But the group also blames another decline in property values. Total home values went down by two-point-three percent last year in seven counties in southeast Wisconsin. And of the 11 Wisconsin metro areas that don’t cross state lines, Milwaukee had the biggest decrease in home values over the past five years – almost six-and-a-half percent. Todd Berry of the Wisconsin Taxpayers Alliance said Milwaukee was hit harder than other parts of the state because it has more low-income residents. And the region was hit harder than others by foreclosures. But Berry also noted that in the early part of the last decade, metro Milwaukee out-performed the rest of Wisconsin in its increases in residential values. This is the third straight year that overall home values have declined in the seven Milwaukee area counties. But Tom Henken of the Public Policy Forum says the drops have gotten smaller as time goes on.

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