A School Board member says voters can approve a $22.5 million school referendum without seeing an increase in property taxes – and a pro-referendum committee goes even further, saying a successful referendum could actually lower property tax bills.
The president of the Wisconsin Taxpayers Alliance has his doubts, and some Germantown School District residents question the idea that borrowing $22.5 million for a new elementary school wouldn’t raise their taxes.
“It just makes people all the more suspicious,” resident Anne Bastow said about the Nov. 4 referendum. “To say your (property tax) payments are going down when you’re getting something new, it just doesn’t jibe.”
But a top official with the state Department of Public Instruction says school districts can increase their state aid – and simultaneously reduce property tax levies – by increasing enrollment.