Act 10 Reduces Property Tax Bills? Not in Sun Prairie!

We've all heard reams of rhetoric declaring that Gov. Walker's Act 10 reduces spending and gives communities the "tools" to reduce property taxes.  Well....we must not have used all the tools.   Or not used them properly. Or something.  Clearly WE must have screwed up...right?   Because surely the Governor means what he says and says what he means...right?

Or maybe like some Stephen King novel, Sun Prairie has somehow been trapped under a dome immune from the curative powers bestowed upon other districts.  Why? Because we  took a gander at the tax bill for the one home in the district that Culver et al have paraded for years as being the representative home.  Not only did the overall property tax bill increase by 2.6% ($150) over last year, but the assessed value DROPPED by 4.3% (over $10,000)!

Barring any huge new valuations added to the tax roles, even a flat tax levy will result in increased property taxes if property values shrink.  So this year we got the double whammy.   The net effective mill rate (property tax bill divided by assessed value/1000) amounts to a 7.2% increase.

The property tax bill for this "model" home has risen over 15% over the past 5 years, adding an additional $753 to the property tax bill.   We should be on The Biggest Loser what with all the pizza we've had to give up!