Vote No on November 5th
Sheboygan School Referendum

The Sheboygan Area School District (SASD) wants to increase our property taxes by $122 million to remodel Urban and Farnsworth middle schools. Despite declining school enrollment and mediocre academic achievement scores for all of SASD schools, the School Board wants to burden taxpayers with higher property taxes at a time of high inflation and great economic uncertainty.

Opposition to this referendum is growing, and for good reason. Property taxes will increase every year for the next 22 years. Increasing taxes while Sheboygan families are paying more for everything from gas to groceries is wrong. Even those who do not own a home will be impacted by this. The unfortunate reality is that the tax hike, in large part, would be passed down to renters in the form of higher monthly rents. It is detrimental to ask families to pay more when they are barely making ends meet.

You will be literally taxed out of your home.

Homeownership is an essential part of the American Dream. For so many people, a home is more than simply a house. A home represents financial security, the opportunity to start a family, create equity that can help put your children through college and afford retirement. But if this referendum passes on November 5th, homeownership will not be possible in Sheboygan. This should concern you, even if you don't own a home or plan to buy one.

While the School District claims the tax increase will be modest, that's not completely true when you look at the next 22 years. Properties will be reassessed several times within this time frame. This means the above $100,000 property example will be invalid when it's reassessed. When a home or business is reassessed, it determines the value of that property and how much taxes will be collected every year. At the end of the day, property values are going up and so will your property taxes if this referendum is passed in November.

Remember, this is just the Sheboygan Area School District. Your property tax bill also includes the Municipality, County and Lakeshore Technical College. Will you be able to afford future tax increases from any of the four? Those living in the City of Sheboygan, Town of Sheboygan, Town of Wilson, Town of Mosel and the Village of Cleveland will be impacted by this tax increase. The School District is already planning another referendum in 2026 to increase our property taxes even more!

We all know prices of everything are only going up, not down. You probably have seen your car insurance increase every 6 months since 2021. In the City of Sheboygan, our quarter water bills have gone up and so have our electric bills. It all adds up, even if it seems like a small increase, think about the future. That $40 annual increase will end up being nearly $600 annually in 22 years, that's if the other taxing bodies don't increase their taxes. If they do, then we are all looking at $1,000 or more in our yearly property tax bill.

It's not necessarily a funding issue that the School District has. It's gross mismanagement. Those in charge allowed many of our schools to fall in disrepair and expected us, the taxpayer, to pay even more in taxes to build brand new schools. The School District had the funds over the years to properly maintain all buildings but they decided to give administrators and teachers pay increases. They are even paying students to show up to classes and behave. Why are we providing financial incentives to children for doing what they should be doing?

We sure do seem to send a whole lot of money to the Sheboygan Area School District just to churn out students who can hardly form a sentence and need their fingers to do addition and subtraction. Maybe, there is something fundamentally wrong with the SASD that should be addressed before we give up even more of our money, that we worked hard to earn.

In the last school referendum in 2016, voters approved and allowed the School District to spend $29 million to add classrooms at Cleveland and Lincoln-Erdman Elementary Schools and expansion at Pigeon River Elementary, among other projects at various schools. How are the students doing with those improvements? In the most recent School Report Card released by the State of Wisconsin, the School District received a score of 61.5, which is 3 out of 5 stars. Since 2012, the district has only received 3 out of 5 stars, even with improvements.

The Sheboygan Taxpayers Alliance is a group of homeowners and business owners who believe in fiscally responsible, transparent and accountable government. We educate citizens about public policy alternatives, and the actions of government leaders, officials and agencies. We also encourage active and participative citizenship among the people of Sheboygan County.

Please consider making a donation to the Sheboygan Taxpayers Alliance to support our efforts. There are a variety of ways your donation helps; making yard signs, advertising in newspapers, and sending mail. Click here to make a donation online or mail a check:

Sheboygan Taxpayers Alliance
P.O. Box 1394
Sheboygan, WI 53082

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Sheboygan Taxpayers Alliance
P.O. Box 1394
Sheboygan, WI 53082
[email protected]