Todd Greco explains Dodgeland school tax levy and mill-rate trends

Todd Greco, presenter for the Dodgeland School District, outlined how state aid, the local tax levy and the mill rate work together to fund the district in a short informational video this week.

Greco said Wisconsin "sets the revenue cap that we are allowed to work within," and explained that within that cap the state provides some funding as state aid while "the remaining portion ... is referred to as the tax levy," which is paid by local property owners. He described the mill rate as a way to calculate local property tax bills and summarized the district's 20-year trend data.

Using the figures he presented, Greco gave a current example of the calculation: roughly $3.9 million in tax levy divided by about $6,120,000,000 in equalized property value, "multiplied by 1,000 gives us our mill rate of 6.3," he said. He also cited historical points from the slides: a $3.5 million levy in 2005 with a 12.45 mill rate, and a high point in 2010 with a $4.4 million levy and a 13.42 mill rate.

Greco emphasized that the district's mill rate has "been trending down over many, many years," attributing the decline primarily to rising property values — he said property values increased "by about $340,000,000" over the period he reviewed. He noted the mill rate rose slightly this year (from 6.16 to 6.3), saying this change was "due to some other factors, some of which were school vouchers," a topic he said he discussed in a previous video.

Greco closed by directing viewers to the district's Dodge and Exchange resource for referendum and district information and invited residents to call, email or visit the district office with questions.

The presentation was informational and contained no formal proposals or votes; Greco framed the segment as an explainer to help residents understand how the levy, equalized value and mill rate interact to determine local school property tax bills.