Sponsor
Alderman DeHahn
Title
Resolution Concerning Elimination of Personal Property Taxes
WHEREAS, the State of Wisconsin has been regularly and consistently reducing aid payments to municipalities and exempting property taxes for certain businesses and industries for the past forty years which has shifted the property tax burden to residential homeowners.
WHEREAS, Representative Bob Kulp (R-Stratford) and Senator Tom Tiffany (R-Hazelhurst) plan to introduce legislation that would eliminate both the personal property tax and the computer aid payments made to local governments; and
WHEREAS, the total statewide personal property tax levy in 2013 (collected in 2014) was $290 million; and
WHEREAS, the State has been making computer aid payments to local governments since 2001 to offset the personal property tax exemption for computer equipment that was created that year, with the total payment for 2015 set at $83.8 million; and
WHEREAS, elimination of the personal property tax on businesses will result in even more of the property tax burden shifting to residential homeowners, who, on average already pay 70% of the statewide property tax levy; and
WHEREAS, the impact of eliminating the personal property tax will be greatest in the cities and villages where most of the personal property tax base is located, and
WHEREAS, fully exempting all personal property from the property tax will likely result in a reduction in the incremental levy for many tax incremental finance districts;
WHEREAS, in 2014 (collected in 2015) the City of Racine's loss of computer aid payment for exempt computers would mean $421,018 less for the City's General Fund and $211,917 less for the City's TIDs, for a total decrease in state aid payments of $632,935; and
WHEREAS, in the City of Racine, the shift to residential homeowners would be $1,745,385 of tax levy for just the City portion of property taxes and the resulting equalized tax rate increase will be $0.5630 per $1,000 valuation.
NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that the City of Racine opposes any attempt by the State Legislature to eliminate the personal property tax and the computer aid payments local governments receive for tax-exempt computer and related equipment; and at a minimum, the loss in local tax base and resulting tax shift must be addressed before moving forward with the legislation.
Fiscal Note: N/A