COLUMN

Tax levy decreases, lowest mil rate since 1984

The school district property tax levy was established by the Ellsworth Community School District Board of Education at a special meeting on Oct. 24. As seen in recent years, the school district tax rates will once again fall this year.

The school property tax levy for the 20222023 school year will be $9,206,056. This is a decrease of 1.16% from the previous school year’s levy of $9,313,932.

Residents will also see a reduction in the mil rate which will now be $7.10 per $1,000 of residential property value. This is down from $8.06 last year and is the lowest mill rate residents have seen, according to Department of Public Instruction records dating back to 1984. To put things in perspective, this year’s tax levy is $98,940 more than the tax levy for the 2015-2016 school year while property values in the district have increased by over $450 million in that same time period to nearly $1.3 billion. This is also prior to the Ellsworth Elementary School project being approved by residents.

There are always a number of factors that drive local school property tax rates. Here are some key factors in making up the current tax levy and recent trends.

Property values increased by over 12% this past year. Although below the state average of 14%, this is a substantial increase.

The voters of the district approved the $1.3 million Operational Referendum this past April. This was an increase from the previous $1 million Operational Referendum but still allowed for the local property tax levy to decrease as predicted in the referendum modeling.

State equalized aid, the primary state aid to schools, was increased in the current state biennial budget that ends with this school year. It is important to note that this provides for lower property taxes but does not provide school districts with larger revenues with which to operate.

The current state biennial budget did not provide for increased per pupil aid or revenue limit increases. With the increase in equalized aid and no increases in these areas the local property taxes tend to decrease.

Actual impacts of the levy will vary in each township and village based on actual property value changes with each entity but overall, it is always good to be able to reduce tax levies at the local level.

Over the course of this school year, we will be closely monitoring the funding discussions at the state level as we move away from the availability of ESSER dollars to fund projects and programs in school districts. The decisions made at the state level will greatly affect the funding of our operations and local taxation rates as we move into the next biennial budget.