What To Look For On Your Property Tax Bill

It’s property tax season. City Treasurer Spencer Coggs‘ office mailed out more than 100,000 bills earlier this month.

If you’re one of the recipients, you’ll want to make sure a valuable credit is included on your bill.

If you lived in and owned your home as of January 1, 2022, make sure your bill includes the Lottery and Gaming Credit. It’ll save you $242.11.

The annual credit is funded by the State of Wisconsin‘s proceeds from the Wisconsin Lottery, on-track betting and bingo. The credit, which is calculated based on the school tax rate, is available to all Wisconsin homeowners on their primary residence. But in a number of cases, it’s not automatically applied.

Is it not on your bill? Don’t fret. The City Treasurer maintains a straightforward webpage with details on how to claim the credit and will issue a refund if it’s not applied until after the bill is paid. But don’t wait. There is a Jan. 31, 2023 deadline to apply.

The latest Milwaukee property tax bill also includes an unusual scenario for many property owners. While a property’s assessed value might have gone up substantially, the overall tax bill might go down.

The city’s assessment process, which attempts to match property values to comparable sales prices, yielded a 13.23% average increase in 2022. But state law caps the amount of property tax revenue a taxing entity can collect. As a result, property owners who saw their value increase at a percentage rate below 13.23% likely saw a reduction in the amount of their property tax bill.

That reduction is most likely to be experienced in the traditionally wealthier parts of the city. The third aldermanic district, which includes much of Riverwest and the East Side, saw its residential values raise an average of 10.3%. But that doesn’t mean residents have low taxes. The average residential property value in that district is $306,494, which translates to a $7,297 tax bill. Those properties have seen steady property value increases for years, while other areas of the city are now seeing sharp increases after years of stagnation or decline.

The average Milwaukee home is now valued at $154,469, up from $131,166.

More details on the assessment process are available in our April coverage.

You can view your, or your neighbor’s, property tax bill online on the City Treasurer’s website. Click “view bill image” to see what should have been received in the mail. Pay special attention to the instructions for how to enter a street address (i.e. 1000 N. Water Street should be entered as 1000 N WATER ST).