Half of Fox Valley school districts tax to the limit; less state aid further shifts load to taxpayers

Michael Louis Vinson

A dip in state education aid will force many taxpayers to reach deeper into their pockets this year to help fund schools.
School districts across the Fox Cities raised property taxes by an average of 3.8 percent compared with last year, slightly higher than the 3.4 percent statewide average.
“Districts are kind of in a no-win situation,” said Dale Knapp, a spokesman for Wisconsin Taxpayers Alliance, a government watchdog group that crunched the tax numbers and released them this week. “The tax levy is a function of what happens with state aid.”
When aid drops, schools turn to the taxpayers to make up the difference.