Property taxes rise in the face of a budget deficit

Steven Walters reports in "Limiting property tax will be no easy feet" that homeowners are paying a larger share of the levy at 71%:

Capitol leaders promise to control property taxes next year, after homeowners and other property owners opened bills this month that, in total, rose by 2.8% to a record $8.6 billion.

Wisconsin's 1.5 million homeowners will pay about 71% of that levy - a percentage that keeps rising. In 1990, for example, homeowners paid 60% of all property taxes.

Doyle said the property tax bill mailed in December on a median-value home assessed at $171,840 will be $2,843, or about the same as last year. Of that total, $1,475 - or more than half - will pay for public schools, and $783 will go to run the local city, village or town.