Forestry tax exempted from tax cap
11:20 PM 6/11/03
Scott Milfred State government reporter

The Legislature's budget committee wants to limit every portion of your property tax bill except one: the state's portion.

The Republican-run Joint Finance Committee last week approved tight property tax caps on public schools, cities, villages, towns, counties and technical colleges.

Only the state's property tax to support forestry programs would be exempt.

That's hypocritical and outrageous, said Jane Wood, city manager of Beloit, which is facing deep cuts in city services under the Republican property tax cap proposal.

"When you care more about a tree than you do about school children or the poor, that tells you a lot about who is running the state of Wisconsin," Wood said Wednesday.

Sen. Bob Welch, R-Redgranite, a chief sponsor of the property tax freeze idea, said the relatively small impact of the forestry tax convinced the Republicans to exempt it.

"It's a small, dinky thing," Welch said Wednesday.

The state since 1937 has levied a tax of 20 cents per $1,000 of property value to support forestry programs. The tax rate has never changed, but the fund collects more money as the value of property in Wisconsin increases.

The state collected $67 million during its current budget year from the forestry tax. That amount, according to the Legislative Fiscal Bureau, is projected to increase by about 7 percent annually to $71.8 million next year and $76.8 million the following year.

About half of the forestry tax money pays for enhancing timber resources in northern Wisconsin, including the distribution of about 20 million seedlings annually. State forestry workers also review private forestry management plans, try to prevent forest fires and improve state parks.

The impact of the forestry tax on the owner of a $126,473 median valued home in Wisconsin would be $25.29 - or about 1 percent of their property tax bill, the Fiscal Bureau estimated Wednesday.

The $25.29 charge on the typical home is projected to increase about 5 percent to $26.56 next year and $27.89 the following year, according to the Fiscal Bureau. That's about a $1.30 increase each year, although the burden on homeowners with climbing assessments in hot real estate markets such as Madison would be greater.

Rich Eggleston, a spokesman for the Alliance of Cities, noted that the Republican budget plan would virtually freeze municipal tax levies for two years while technical college and public school levies would be held at or below 2.6 percent annually. In contrast, the state would let itself increase its forestry tax levy an estimated 7 percent each year.

"It's the perfect example of the double standard the state wants to hold local governments to," Eggleston said.

(Local sewerage and lake districts also would be free from property-tax caps, but most property owners don't have to pay such charges).

The Legislature still must approve the Republican budget committee's proposal and send it to Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle, who has called it a gimmick.

Welch acknowledged that critics of exempting the forestry tax from his freeze "have a point there," he said. But he quickly added: "We're arguing about a buck" average increase.