Monday, April 17, 2006

Mill Rate Myths

In order to help the voters of eastern Racine County make an INTELLIGENT and INFORMED decision, I thought I would take this opportunity to dispel the rumors of our mill rate. The current board and administration will tell the voters (again and again !!) that they need the referendum because our mill rate is abysmally low.

It is true; our mill rate is low. But the data below shows that although Kenosha’s mill rate is higher than ours, and did collect more in property taxes, we still collected more in state and federal revenue and our total revenue is about the same.

The data is taken from Wisconsin’s Department of Instruction website; the data is from 2003-2004, the most recent year available:


Racine
Number of students 21,203
Property Taxes $53,063,274
Other Local Revenue $4,695,838
State Revenue $137,421,051
Federal Revenue $17,864,153
RUSD Total Revenue - $213,044,316

Kenosha
Number of students 21,379
Property Taxes $61,560,509
Other Local Revenue $8,831,051
State Revenue $126,129,743
Federal Revenue $16,136,755
KUSD Total Revenue - $212,658,058

3 comments:

realdebate said...

I am so sick of this mill rate point.

Mill rate is but one component of determining the over-all property tax burden.

This is ALL about tax levy. Mill Rate X Assessed Value = Tax Due.

You can lower the mill rate all day. I just got an 8.9% increase in my assessed value for the 2nd year in a row. Now they used to those assesments every two years.

If they keep the mill rate the same of even lower it a little my tax due will be higher.

The sad thing is those spouting this rhetoric already know this. If they do not they are too moronic to have anything to do with our educational system.

Sorry for the big ramble.

Brenda said...

Ramble on Fred!!

realdebate said...

Thanks Brenda, I will. I forgot to add this.

^#*(!^!*&(_^$@#(_@#!%*&@)#$!%^&(@$~#_^%&$@!*)%&^@!$*)^%@&!(_^!$&$*)%$!&^*)!$@%^&!@$^&!@$#*)^$!@&*)^%@!&$*%@$&$!@^&)!@#$^&(_

Not that I am exercised over this issue or anything. :)