Finance committee refers school request to staff to explore showing voucher dollars on Green Bay tax bills

The Green Bay Finance Committee on Jan. 14 voted to refer to city staff a request from the Green Bay Area Public School District to explore adding a line on the city’s printed property tax bill that would show the portion of the district levy used to fund voucher and independent charter school payments.

Laura McCoy, president of the Green Bay Area Public School District board, urged the committee to approve the referral and described the request as an effort to increase taxpayer transparency. "When I tell people that ... about $12,500,000 this year is going to go to schools that are not Green Bay schools, they are often kind of incredulous," McCoy said. "The least that we can do for them is to have tax bills that are accurate, that are honest."

City staff and alderpersons discussed process and cost. City staff said the county prints, programs and mails tax bills; if a municipality wants to change the format or add inserts it may need to notify Brown County in time for the county's spring ordering of tax forms. Staff said adding a small line of text may be possible with little or no cost, while inserts or larger formatting changes could increase per-piece printing or mailing costs and require programming work.

Committee members asked whether the school district, which provided the requested levy figures, could provide the specific numbers to populate the tax bill for each municipality. School board members in the room indicated they would provide those figures if the city requested them. Finance staff described the existing workflow: municipalities submit mill rates and levy lines to the county, which compiles and prints tax bills for jurisdictions.

Alderpersons expressed differing views on scope and cost. Some committee members emphasized transparency but urged staff to return with details about any added printing or programming costs; others questioned whether a single line would provide full transparency, noting other state funding flows such as open-enrollment payments are calculated differently and were not part of the current request.

After public comment from school board members and a lengthy discussion, the committee closed the floor to public comment and approved a motion to refer the request to staff. The motion carried by voice vote; committee members instructed staff to determine (1) whether the city or county must approve such a change, (2) whether the county can program the change and at what cost, and (3) whether the school district can provide the line-item amounts by municipality and taxpayer assessed value necessary for the tax bill.

Committee members planned to place the staff report on the council agenda; staff said timing is important because Brown County typically orders printed tax forms in March or April.