When it comes to equalized value and shared revenue trends in Southeast Pierce County and Durand, more is more, with the exception of Maiden Rock. More specifically, the lakeside community of 119 residents at the last census in 2010 fell below Bay City the last five years in terms of its total shared revenue, even as it equaled and rose above Bay City for equalized property value trends in the second half of the decade now just closing. As in last week’s comparison, “shared revenue” will be defined as “income sourced from the state through taxes and other means, and then distributed to local communities for discretionary use, with the amount based on such things as population and need.”

“Equalized property value,” meanwhile, will be defined for comparison purposes as “a measure of taxable property held in each municipality and meant to reflect fair market value as the most probable selling price of a property when neither side is under pressure to sell or buy said property.” With comparative data taken from the Wisconsin Policy Forum’s Data Tool at wispolicyforum.org, these are the numbers for Southeastern Pierce County and Durand as a nearby neighbor.

Starting at the bottom of the equalized property values for the period of 2014-2019 is Bay City at the Head of Lake Pepin. In 2014 the Village of Bay City had an equalized property value figure of $19 million, while Maiden Rock stood at $20 million, Plum City at $24 million, and Durand, Wisconsin just across the border and capital of Pepin County at $93 million. Meanwhile for 2015, the equalized property values were $19 million for Bay City, $20 million for Maiden Rock, $25 million for Plum City, and $96 million for Durand. In 2016, the numbers for each were $19 million for both Bay City and Maiden Rock, $26 million for Plum City and $98 million for Durand. In 2017, meanwhile, Bay City went down while Maiden Rock increased, with the Bay City registering $18 million in equalized property value and Maiden Rock rising slightly to $21 million. Plum City measured $27 million for a similar $1 million increase in 2017 while Durand rose $3 million to $101 million in equalized property values. For 2018, meanwhile, Durand fell by $5 million to a figure of just $96 with six zeros behind it for equalized property value, while Plum City rose by $2 million to $29 million, with Maiden Rock rising likewise to $23 million and Bay City holding steady at $18 million in equalized property value. Closing out the five-year comparison, Durand came out with $98 million in 2019 in equalized property value, with corresponding figures of $31 million for Plum City, $24 million for Maiden Rock and $20 million for Bay City to the west. Durand’s high performance in equalized property had an echo in the

See COMPARISON, Page 5 shared revenue numbers from the state, with a five-year average consistently set at near three times its nearest competitor in Plum City.

More specifically, the City of Durand scored $466,000 in shared revenue funding from Madison in 2013, while Plum City received $147,000 in redistributed state tax dollars under shared revenue. Bay City received $81,000 and Maiden Rock just $56,000 in shared revenue. For a per capita comparison of the same year, Maiden Rock received $478.63 per resident in shared revenue, Bay City gained $163.97 per resident, Plum City got $244.59, and Durand received $241.33, these values being reached by dividing the total award for each by estimated population in 2013, or 2010 in the case of Durand, with a long-term shrinking population for the Pepin County capital.

Moving from 2013 to 2014, the shared revenue trends remained largely unchanged, with Maiden Rock receiving $55,000 from the state, Bay City $81,000, Plum City $149,000, and Durand $467,000. For 2015, meanwhile, the shared revenue numbers were $56,000 for Maiden Rock, $81,000 for Bay City, $147,000 for Plum City, and $467,000 for Durand.

Shifting to 2016 Durand took a small hit to receive only $395,000 in shared revenue. During the same year, meanwhile, Maiden Rock got $56,000, Bay City $81,000, and Plum City $149,000. For 2017 the village of Maiden Rock got $56,000, Bay City received $81,000, Plum City received $147,000, while Durand shot back up to receive $475,000 in state shared revenue funds. In 2018, the last year for which comparative data was available, Maiden Rock and Bay City remained unchanged, while Plum City received $149,000 in shared revenue and Durand received $474,000.