Understanding Your Property Tax Bill

Understanding school funding for PreK-12 public school districts can be complicated, however the basic principle is that there are two major revenue streams: state general aid and local property taxes. 

The state imposes a revenue ceiling (limit) for each district, which sets how much revenue can be collected from a combination of state general aid and local property taxes. Under this ceiling, when state aid goes down, the local property taxes increase. In Sparta, this ceiling is currently $11,352 per student, which is in the bottom 1% of revenue per student of all public school districts across the State. 

State Budget and Your Property Tax Bill

The current State Budget significantly impacted local property taxes; for the first time ever, there was no new state general aid allocated to PreK-12 public schools, despite the state having a significant budget surplus. 

• School districts received a guaranteed increase in their revenue ceiling of $325 per student; however, it was not offset by an increase to state general aid, meaning school districts must levy property taxes for the entire increase, which is unprecedented. 
• This is the 17th year in a row that public schools did not receive a per pupil cost of living increase. According to the Legislative Fiscal Bureau, a cost of living increase for 2025-26 would have been $413.93 per pupil (versus the $325 received).
• While public school districts will receive a $325 per student increase for each of the next two years ($650 total), independent charters and private schools per student increase will be $1,068 over the two years.

District Budget and Your Property Tax Bill

The SASD Tax Levy is made up of three individual levies which include:

• Revenue Limit Levy: to support general operations, such as salaries, benefits, textbooks, technology, and transportation, of the district.
• Debt Service Levy: to pay down the outstanding referendum-approved debt, including principal and interest.
• Community Service Levy: to support activities and programs that serve the community and are open to all age-appropriate residents. 

Overall our District tax levy increased by 6.97% from $14.06 million to $15.03 million because of three major factors:

• The state budget extended the $325 per student increase on the revenue limit but did not increase state general aid
• The District levied $477,100 more for debt service as a result of the $87M facility referendum
• Of the $7,035,849 levy for Operations (Revenue Limit), $1,323,194 was levied for private school vouchers, which is an increase of $164,735 which is primarily because of an increase in the funding per voucher.

The District is one of five taxing jurisdictions on your tax bill. The five jurisdictions include the state, county, city/village, school district, and local technical college. Each jurisdiction sets its own tax levy, and not all tax the same way. The county and city/village tax on the assessed value but school districts must tax on the fair market (equalized) value. Across the state, fair market values have been increasing at a faster rate than assessed values due to the housing market and inflation.

The Mill Rate determines the average tax per $1,000 of fair market property value. The 2025 SASD Total Tax Levy is $14,056,729 with a corresponding Mill Rate of $7.17. The Mill Rate remained the same amount as last year due to increases in fair market value.  

The District is made up of 14 municipalities. The change in taxes from year to year will vary based on where you live and what happens to the property value in your municipality.

How to Read Your Tax Bill

The image below is a sample tax bill. Each letter corresponds to the list of descriptions below the image.

You may have noted that the Mill Rate is NOT published on the tax bill, but it can be calculated. The formula for calculating the Mill Rate is:

1. Total Assessed Value: The value of taxable land and buildings that an assessor places on your property for the purpose of taxation. The assessed value may be higher or lower than the current fair market value of the property. The Assessed Value is used by the municipality to distribute the tax burden among the individual property owners, or “fairness in the municipality”.
2. Average Assessment Ratio: Determined by the Wisconsin Department of Revenue to promote tax fairness, the assessment ratio is used to calculate the cash value of your property, also known as the Total Estimated Fair Market Value (C.). The assessment ratio is required to be between 90 - 110% at least once every five years.
3. Total Estimated Fair Market Value: The Fair Market Value is the estimate of the amount your property would sell for on the open market with a willing buyer. The Fair Market Value is equal to the Total Assessed Value (A.) divided by the Average Assessment Ratio (B.). 

4. School Levy Tax Credit: A State of Wisconsin “shared revenue” program that distributes funds to municipalities (not to school districts), to reduce the amount of school district tax levy to be collected. These credits are not controlled by the school district and do not result in any additional funding for the school district.
5. Estimated State Aids: The revenue received from the state for each jurisdiction. For school districts, any state aid received offsets the amount of the local tax burden.
6. Net Tax: The total property tax minus the lottery and gaming credit, as described below.

7. % Net Change: The change in Net Tax from one year to the next. This does NOT equal the change in the school district Tax Levy or the Mill Rate. This is because the % Change is also affected by the change in (1) Fair Market Value, (2) Assessed Value, and the (3) School Levy Tax Credit.
8. First Dollar Credit and Lottery and Gaming Credit: Similar to the School Levy Tax Credit, these credits issue revenue back to municipalities to offset property taxes. These credits do not result in any additional funding for the school district.
9. Voter Approved Temporary Tax Increases: State law requires that these informational items are displayed on tax bills for each jurisdiction that has a temporary change in the tax levy, by referendum. The items shown represent the TOTAL voter approved levy that is IN ADDITION to the Operating Levy, they do NOT represent a change in taxes as compared to the prior year.

Contact

If you have any questions regarding this information, please contact the SASD Director of Business Services, Leah Hauser, at lhauser@spartan.org or 608-366-3400.