Conservatively Speaking

There is new evidence that Governor Doyle broke his promise to freeze property taxes.

Before I get to the evidence, let’s review the Governor’s own statements about freezing property taxes. When he signed the state budget into law on July 25, 2005, the Governor proposed his own freeze. He wrote the following in his budget veto message:

“My budget froze property taxes for the next two years. The freeze I am signing today means that the average homeowner’s property tax bill will be frozen this December.”

The Governor rejected the Legislature’s freeze and vetoed into the budget his own freeze, and by the Governor’s own definition, it was not a freeze.

“My freeze (allows) a minimum increase of two percent, or the rate of growth, whichever is higher. While the ‘average’ taxpayer will see taxes frozen, many people will see their bill go down. Some people may see their bill go up.”

A study by the non-profit, non-partisan Wisconsin Taxpayers Alliance revealed Wisconsin’s 230 largest cities and villages’ property tax levies increased by an average 4.1 percent in 2005-06, despite the Governor’s property tax freeze. When all Wisconsin municipalities were included, the results were exactly the same; property tax levies rose an average 4.1 percent.

I wrote about the Governor’s failure to freeze in August 2006 and December 2005

Now comes more evidence that the Governor failed to keep his property tax freeze promise. Once again, the Wisconsin Taxpayers Alliance reports property tax levies statewide are on the rise. Analyzing figures that were finalized in May 2007 by the state Department of Revenue, the Taxpayers Alliance finds that municipal property taxes rose 3.5 percent this year to $2.095 billion.

The Taxpayers Alliance found that 10 municipalities raised their 2007 property tax levies by over 20 percent, 7 raised their levies by over 30 percent, 4 raised their levies by over 40 percent, 1 raised its levy by over 50 percent, 1 by over 60 percent, and in one municipality, the property tax levy shot up an incredible 94.9 percent.

Here is the Taxpayers Alliance’s press release.

If that is Governor Doyle’s concept of a property tax freeze, I surely would hate to see his idea of a property tax increase.