Two Rivers Public Schools are explaining why residents are seeing an increase in their taxes.
District Finance Director Mary Kay Slattery explained on WOMT’s Be My Guest program that residents think the $38.7 million referendum approved in 2022 caused the increase when it’s their operation levy.
Slattery says Two Rivers was one of the few districts considered a low-spending school district, meaning the state gave a $1,000 increase in their per-pupil revenue.
However, it doesn’t mean the state will send more state aid.
Slattery explained, “If the state does not increase significantly the amount of state aid that we’re being given, then unfortunately, it’s the property taxes that are going to be increased. And that’s basically what’s happened here in Two Rivers.”
Another significant increase came in the school’s voucher program.
Two Rivers Public School Superintendent Diane Johnson said that open enrollment and the school voucher program are the same when they are not.
She explained that if a student wants to openly enroll somewhere else, like Manitowoc, that would be done through public schools.
Johnson says the voucher program is paid through residents’ taxes.
“So it’s making it look like it’s coming from our school district, but it’s not,” she stated. “The money is filtered through our school district. It comes in, it goes out. We don’t know who the children are. We don’t know what private school they are going to. We just get assessed whatever the amount of money that is.”
Johnson says this year, taxpayers contributed over $910,000 for private school tuition, which sends children to private schools sometimes outside of the city.
The Two Rivers school board took $500,000 out of their savings to offset the tuition.
Mary Kay Slattery also mentioned that the district’s Equalized Value also caused some of the increase, but that was done through the city.
According to the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction, voucher expansions started in 1989 with the creation of the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program.
