As we get ready to head down to City Hall next week to pay our ridiculously high property taxes, it is worth noting that our bill is $611.03 less than it was in 2010. That’s a 9.4% decrease in 5 years.
Property taxes are still far too high in this state, but thanks to Governor Scott Walker and a Republican legislature, it’s getting better… every so slowly… it’s getting better. In particular for us, a big thanks to the elected leaders in the City of West Bend who have restrained city spending and declined to increase property taxes for over half a decade now.
Just remember every time the liberals roll their eyes and bash Republicans for small tax cuts. They say things like “that wouldn’t even buy a cup of coffee” and pretend that those little savings for hard-working tax payers are not worth the “sacrifices” in government spending that we have to forgo to allow it (pretending for a moment that our government has actually made cuts). But those small tax cuts add up over time just like the small tax increases do.
In this case, that’s $611.03 in reduced taxes that we are going to pay a bill, or buy a product, or enjoy a service, or save, or invest, or all of the above. The point is that our family will directly benefit from the lower property taxes and our community will indirectly benefit from them. And while some liberals may still cluck their tongues at $611.03, that’s still a lot of money to me.
But if a Dem is ever Governor again, and Walker’s debts come due, you’ll blame the Dem.
In Milwaukee our taxes went up. it’s over $400 a month in taxes and fees. All for the “privilege” of living in this city. (assessed at $165600 for comparison).
My taxes have gone up again. This year up around $200. Only 1 year in 5 that my taxes didn’t go up.
Owen, thanks again for your part in this over the years.
This has truly been a massive success story that Scott Walker has done a poor job of explaining and touting. He should be running ads RIGHT NOW showing copies of people’s bills in 2010 and 2015 with people from the WOW counties raving about what they are doing with those real savings.
Then if some in MKE and Madison are still getting jabbed due to Mayor Barrett and MPS, run interviews/show bills of those folks.
This would be the best campaign money the GOP could ever spend. Make sure this success story is firmly placed in the minds of voters who quickly forget. And contrary to liberal scare tactics, my State services have continued to be excellent the past five years as has my kids public high school.
Thanks to a lot of people pushing and pushing. We have a long way to go.
For those of you seeing your property taxes continue to rise, if your assessments are relatively flat over that time period, then you need to look to your local governments (municipal, county, school, tech college). They were given a lot of tools under Act 10 to control spending and taxes. Are they using them?
Let’s put this into perspective:
Owen saved $611.03 and that is only a 9% decrease.
Out here in the West, that $630 would represent the whole property tax bill of most houses under $250,000.
Just another reason why people are moving out of Wisconsin and other heavily taxed states and moving to the South and West where taxes are at a minimum.
Exactly right, Dan. While I hope to have a comfortable nest egg saved up before I retire, there’s no way I’m going to spend that much every year on property taxes when I no longer have an income when I can cut that bill so much just by moving. For the $5k+ per year in savings, I can afford a lot of trips back to Wisconsin to visit people if necessary.