Waterford

What’s that old expression about ‘figures don’t lie’? Comparison glitch grinches tax bills

 

By Patricia Bogumil

Editor

“Whoa!” (or a stronger expletive) was the common reaction for many Waterford and Union Grove area residents taking a first glance at their 2014 property tax bills.

While the grand total of taxes owed dropped across the county’s west end, huge percentage hikes are listed on tax bills for the Waterford and Union Grove union high school districts – a figure county officials admit is skewed due to new computer software designed to deliver better accuracy.

That explanation doesn’t sit well with some school officials, who say an explanation of the computer-related issue should have been included in tax bills. Instead, tax bills show double-digit tax hike percentages in school districts where taxes and tax rates actually dropped.

And that’s not the only glitch.

Several K-8 feeder school districts in which taxes rose show double-digit percentage drops on the tax bills. Some others that cut taxes reportedly are shown as having raised them, percentage-wise.

 What’s going on

The amount of taxes owed to each taxing entity is correct on the 2014 tax bills, County Register of Deeds Tyson Fettes emphasized.

The problem arises when comparing the 2013 school taxes to the 2014 school taxes.

In 2013, the state’s school tax levy credit was applied 100 percent on tax bills to the union high school districts, rather than split between the high school and local K-8 districts, Fettes explained.

“The old bills wrongly applied the school credit to only the high school for many years,” he said.

All the schools correctly receive the state credit funds for their budgets, but Racine County’s tax bills did not properly break out the amount credited in the past, he added.

In 2014, the county switched over to “new, modern, state-of-the-art” software that uncovered the past issue, “and we were able to accurately distribute out the tax credit” on the bills, Fettes explained.

About 35 percent of the state credit is shown on 2014 tax bills for the high school districts; the remaining percent applies to the K-8 districts, Fettes explained.

The new tax bills “show a skewed comparison between the 2013 and 2014 net tax, because the calculations were done differently,” Kimberly Christman, a real property lister with the county’s Land Information Office, said in an explanation sent to school officials.

“We are comparing ‘apples to oranges’ this year, and the percentage change is not a fair comparison,” Christman added. But the situation will straighten out in 2015, when the tax bills “will accurately show any increase or decrease of the net tax,” Christman noted.

Al Mollerskov, superintendent for Union Grove Union High School, said his district cut taxes this year by $350,485 (6.1 percent) – yet tax bills show UGUHS with a double-digit percentage hike.

“It’s creating inaccurate percentages of change,” Mollerskov said.

For accuracy, Racine County could have offered a comparison of taxes paid under the old 2013 and new 2014 computing systems, he suggested.

Keith Brandstetter, Superintendent of Waterford Union High School said that to show the true percentage change in taxes, the bills probably should show the calculations made in both the past and current ways.

In 2014, Waterford Union High School’s taxes also dropped but, like Union Grove Union High School, tax bills show it had a huge double-digit percentage hike.

Both Brandstetter and Mollerskov said they understand taxpayers’ ire upon first seeing the percentage figures shown on the tax bills.

But taxes did not rise in the high school districts, despite the percentage listed on the tax bills, they noted.

Tax bills are accurate, county officials say

Racine County Executive Jim Ladwig said he doesn’t agree with anyone characterizing the school tax information listed on 2014 property tax bills as being inaccurate or erroneous. “It’s the proper allocation, not erroneous information,” Ladwig said.

Racine County Register of Deeds Tyson Fettes agrees. “The 2014 tax bills are accurate and in accordance with state statute,” Fettes said.

State statutes require that the bills show a change-in-tax percentage for the different entities on the tax bills, he said.

Due to software limitations, the state school tax credit could not be properly broken out on previous years’ tax bills, Fettes said.

“Because of software upgrades, we were able to break this calculation up and accurately display the 2014 school district numbers.

“These numbers are accurate and reflect the school credit reduction, which varies by municipality and school district combination,” he said.

Fettes acknowledged the new computing change results in large swings in the percentage tax-change line on the 2014 bills.

“While this percentage change is accurate, it is somewhat misleading due to the fact that it is comparing ‘apples to oranges’ in 2014,” Fettes said.

He said next year, when the 2015 bills come out, the county’s software change will enable taxpayers to compare “apples to apples” and will accurately list dollar amounts and percentage changes for the school districts.

“What I’m trying to reiterate is we found an issue that could be corrected to make our bill more accurate, and we are doing that in order to comply with Wisconsin state statutes,” Fettes said.

Ladwig said the county could have done a better job at explaining the situation for taxpayers, but the end result is that most everybody’s tax bill went down for 2014.  The bottom line, Ladwig added, is the amount of taxes due is correct.

As an aside, Ladwig noted that school districts by law cannot just jump their taxes 30-50 percent and, even if they did, the total taxes due on the bills would not have dropped.

Comments are closed.