Civitas Forum

Wisconsin State Journal
9/22/2007

No one government agency sets your property taxes. Even if some officials claim to hold the line on taxes, other factors may cause taxes to rise anyway.

The property tax you pay is determined by a five-step process: First, each local taxing authority - for example, the school board, city council and county board - determines how much money is needed to provide services wanted by residents.

Then officials look at how much money they expect to get from state aid and other sources such as federal aid or user fees.

The amount of money needed to pay for services, minus state aid and other revenues, is the tax levy - the The total of all tax levies from various authorities, divided by the value of all the taxable property in the district, is called the tax rate. When expressed as taxes per $1,000 of property value, it is called a mill rate. Mill comes from the Latin word for thousand.

Your tax bill is the mill rate for all taxing authorities multiplied by your assessed value. So, if your home is assessed at $100,000 and the mill rate is $20 per $1,000 of assessed value, your property tax will be $2,000 ($100,000 x .02 = $2,000).

Test Your Knowledge: In 2006, residents of which Dane County community paid the highest property tax on a home valued at $200,000? (a) city of Fitchburg, (b) city of Madison, © village of Maple Bluff, (d) city of Sun Prairie, (e) city of Verona. Check next week for the answer.

Last week's quiz answer: The mill rate is an expression of the amount of property tax per thousand dollars of home value.

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What is Civitas? These monthly seminars inform citizens about local government issues and civic responsibility. They are organized by Wood Communications Group and financially supported by several Madison area companies. Information: www.civitaswi.org.