Wisconsin property taxes

[cjnix29]

why are they so high?!?! DH is considering a job there (after much deliberation in considering other locations too), but we started looking at housing and the taxes are about three times as high as we pay! What on earth??? What do I get for my money? are they offset by lower cost of something else???

 

[McKelly]

4th highest in the country I believe...

 

[Poohbug]

Tell me about it. My Federal refund pays for what I still owe the state of Wisconsin at tax time.

 

[wgeo]

As far as I can tell we don't get anything extra for the high property taxes, and better yet now they can only raise those so much, so they've started adding misc. fees and taxes like a wheel tax and more garbage fees etc. Good times.

The only good part is that we are looking to move to another state for work and the property taxes in other places always look better to us, even in states where other people complain that they are high!

Also it does depend a little on what city/county you are looking at. We live in a city and our taxes are almost identical to our parents who live in a rural area in midstate - except that their house is worth 3 times what ours is worth so they shouldn't be the same, but apparently I'm getting something extra living in the city???

 

[cjnix29]

are the income taxes as high??

 

[RitaE]

It isn't uncommon to see Wisconsin ranked in the top part of the nation in total tax burden. For instance - this chart for 2010 puts them at 5th.

http://taxfoundation.org/article/state-and-local-tax-burdens-all-states-one-year-1977-2010

1. New York
2. New Jersey
3. Connecticut
4. California
5. Wisconsin

 

[crisi]

Plowed roads. Lots of them - its expensive to plow roads. A top ten state for public education. Kids in Wisconsin can usually attend their public school and still manage to get into college. Also the Wisconsin governor has been cutting support for localities to balance the state budget - so the costs have to be raised locally, that's property taxes.

 

[Judyat]

I have a home in Minnesota as does my brother. His daughter lives in Wisconsin and her taxes are twice as much as in Minnesota. Can't imagine why anyone would live there given the difference.

 

[Anne34]

Illinois is about as high as Wisconsin. I was recently comparing taxes with my parents and they were pretty close. We don't get much here either. We even have to pay to register for school and have multiple fees in high school. I'm in Illinois now.

 

[dfchelbay]

why are they so high?!?! DH is considering a job there (after much deliberation in considering other locations too), but we started looking at housing and the taxes are about three times as high as we pay! What on earth??? What do I get for my money? are they offset by lower cost of something else???

Don't forget to call your insurance carrier to see what your rates might be like too for home, auto, etc.

 

[robinb]

Plowed roads. Lots of them - its expensive to plow roads. A top ten state for public education. Kids in Wisconsin can usually attend their public school and still manage to get into college. Also the Wisconsin governor has been cutting support for localities to balance the state budget - so the costs have to be raised locally, that's property taxes.

I don't mind paying for services.

Plus, it's cool to live in Wisconsin .

 

[cjnix29]

Don't forget to call your insurance carrier to see what your rates might be like too for home, auto, etc.

I will before we move, but I can't possibly imagine a world in which my auto rates could be higher than in Michigan. Ours doubled when we moved here from Ohio.

 

[heartsy77]

I live in NY 1st one on the list. Even though I live in rural Upstate : my house appraised at 161,000 2 years ago and 1/2 my monthly mortgage goes to escrow for taxes! This why we are looking at moving to Tennessee with in 3 years!

Sent from my iPhone using DISBoards

 

[Belle's Castle]

I live in NY 1st one on the list. Even though I live in rural Upstate : my house appraised at 161,000 2 years ago and 1/2 my monthly mortgage goes to escrow for taxes! This why we are looking at moving to Tennessee with in 3 years!

Sent from my iPhone using DISBoards

Same here, we live in the Hudson Valley in NY. It hurts!

Sent from my iPad using DISBoard

 

[yoopermom]

I moved the opposite of you, WI to MI. MI definately has lower property taxes! (They also only plow the roads up here during daylight weekday hours, but I digress .) My parents are retired teachers in WI, and are just hanging on because their property taxes are so high. Ridiculous!

Our vehicle insurance costs are definately more here in MI, but nowhere close to how much higher the property taxes are in WI.

I love WI, but could probably never afford to live there again!

Terri

 

[ckmommy]

I (We--DH and I) lived in WI for our whole lives, until we moved to Texas 11 years ago. I know we pay a whole lot more here in Texas than we would in Wisconsin. My parent still live in SE Wisconsin and their house is valued at about $150K more than mine in Texas. They pay about $2-3,000 less property taxes than we do.

Insurance--both house and auto is more than 50% lower in WI.

Sales Tax--again way less in WI--we pay 8.25% here

The upside here in TX is no state tax. But with no state tax, we have to pay for garbage, recycling...

 

[clh2]

This is my 2 cents:

We used to live in Illinois, and moved to Wisconsin.

It all balanced out to a "zero" difference. Property taxes were higher, car and house insurance was about 1/2 less. Wi State income tax was higher - electricity and other utilities were less. Gas was less in Wisconsin than in Illinois, and Illinois had tolls.

For every increase we experienced about an equal decrease somewhere else!

 

[wiscbugs]

Most of us in Wisconsin value things like education and helping those who need it in. However, our current governor is trying to make us the next Mississippi or Alabama. I wouldn't move here until this regime is over and see if Wisconsin can recover from all of the damage done.

 

[manning]

Illinois is about as high as Wisconsin. I was recently comparing taxes with my parents and they were pretty close. We don't get much here either. We even have to pay to register for school and have multiple fees in high school. I'm in Illinois now.

Illinois is so well governed that they raised the income tax by 67% and on top of that wants to go to a graduated income tax.

And the amazing thing....we keep voting in the same crooks.

 

[manning]

Most of us in Wisconsin value things like education and helping those who need it in. However, our current governor is trying to make us the next Mississippi or Alabama. I wouldn't move here until this regime is over and see if Wisconsin can recover from all of the damage done.

You're lucky. The Illinois politicians may decide to move there and run for office.