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Appleton superintendent: state funding gap, voucher payments and reassessments drove recent property-tax increases
Summary
Superintendent Greg Hartjes said three factors explain recent school property-tax increases: a 7.9% revenue-limit rise not matched by state aid, a 12.1% jump in payments to Catholic and Lutheran schools via the state's voucher program (about $9.3 million), and local reassessments in places such as Grand Chute.
Greg Hartjes, superintendent of the Appleton Area School District, said in a district video that three developments combined to raise many residents’ school property-tax bills this year: a statewide revenue-limit increase that outpaced state aid, growing voucher payments to private religious schools, and local property reassessments.
Hartjes said the legislature set a higher two-year revenue limit for school districts but “then didn't increase the state aid,” adding, “which meant that this entire amount of increase had to be funded by local property taxpayers.” He said the district’s revenue increased 7.9% and that historically state aid has risen along with revenue limits; this year it did not, he said.
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