District Staffs Prepare for Annual Meetings, Tax Season

Southern Door’s annual meeting is Sept. 19; Gibraltar follows Sept. 26

Door County school district superintendents and business managers will spend the next month and a half preparing information for taxpayers in advance of approving property-tax levies by the end of October.

The levy is the total maximum amount of revenue each school district could collect, following school board approval of that sum. When districtwide property values increase greatly, it is possible for a taxing body to collect more revenue while reducing its mill rate. 

As reports emerged that taxable property values increased by almost 18% statewide, Sevastopol Schools Superintendent Kyle Luedtke said his district received a preliminary estimate that districtwide property values increased by 14%. That large increase, he said, should mean a tax-rate decrease, although possible tax-bill savings for property owners would depend on how much their values had risen or whether they had made property improvements.

Although Sevastopol held its annual meeting in August last year – mainly to show taxpayers the school additions they’d paid for – Luedtke wanted to wait until October this year in order to better grasp the financial information. He said the most complete financial information from the Wisconsin Department of Revenue and the Department of Public Instruction will not arrive until Oct. 15. To avoid rushing, Sevastopol moved its annual meeting back to Oct. 25, 6:30 pm. The board meeting and vote on the tax levy will follow. Luedtke said large increases in property values should mean decreases in state funding, but he’s not yet certain how much.

Southern Door schools’ annual meeting will take place Sept. 19, 6:30 pm, prior to the regular monthly board meeting. That falls just after this school year’s third-Friday enrollment count – a key factor in determining the amount of state funding coming to the school district. The district would then have its budget hearing and tax-levy vote in October.

The Gibraltar School Board will host the annual meeting before its Sept. 26 regular meeting. Superintendent Brett Stousland said preliminary information indicates the districtwide tax base grew by 20% and that Gibraltar already had one of the two lowest rates in the state: around $3. That is likely to decline by 8 cents. 

The Sturgeon Bay School District is not obligated to have an annual meeting, but the district will have a public hearing on the tax levy Oct. 24, prior to the tax-levy vote.