OSHKOSH – Oshkosh Area School District’s tax levy isn’t going up as much as once believed.
Community members could be paying even less for the district’s portion of their property tax bill after the OASD board approved lowering the proposed tax levy from just more than $68 million in the recently passed budget to $67,616,532.
The Board of Education voted 5-2 in favor of passing the new tax levy at its Oct. 22 meeting, leading to a 2.54% increase of last year’s $65,943,198 levy instead of the proposed raise of 3.27%.
The mill rate also fell to $7.81 because of the levy change, dropping from $7.86 in September’s approved budget and last year’s mill rate of $7.90.
What will an Oshkosh homeowner pay in property taxes for the school district portion?
It means the owner of a home valued at $200,000 would pay $1,562 as opposed to $1,580 under last year’s rates.
And that will likely lead to lower totals of the district’s portion of the property tax bill for many homeowners within the city limits as most residential properties saw no change in their assessed value this year.
Only 947 homes witnessed a nominal average increase of 0.8%.
“If everything’s equal and you had a $200,000 property last year and you have a $200,000 property this year, then your school taxes will be lowered,” OASD Executive Director of Business Services Drew Niehans at the meeting.
Was there opposition to the district adopting the tax levy?
Voting against the tax levy, board member Timothy Hess expressed concern with the district presenting equalized values for mill rates considering tax bills are based on the assessed value of properties.
“I am really struggling with a presentation or a notion that in fact when people are going to open up the property tax bills, they are actually going to see a reduction,” Hess said. “I know in the townships they will see an increase.”
According to OASD Superintendent Bryan Davis, the state determines that districts set mill rates at equalized value based on the fair market value of properties determined by the Department of Revenue.
Davis further countered Hess’ statements, saying OASD’s communication has always led with the fact that the district’s levy is increasing by 2.54%.
“I just want to be clear there’s no hocus pocus going on,” Davis said of OASD’s transparency.
“We know the increase is 2.54% and that’s relatively in line when you think about inflationary costs, and we have to heat buildings, and we have to keep lights on, and we have to pay people competitive salaries.”
What led to the tax levy increase?
Niehans explained the tax levy increase was driven by the district’s general operations fund. OASD received $83,608,283 million in state aid, slightly less than the projected $84 million the district was anticipating.
The final tax levy also fell from the projected $68,099,061 total after OASD recently recorded a significant enrollment decline of 185 fewer students than the 2024-25 school year.
Other key notes about the adoption of the tax levy include the following:
Earlier this month, the City of Oshkosh recommended lowering its mill rate from $8.14 to $7.73 and keeping a flat tax levy as part of its budget proposal to common council.
If approved, the city’s portion of the property tax bill will likely be lowered for most homeowners who didn’t see a change in their assessed property values.
“This is a year where most residential properties didn’t see an increase in assessed value, at least in the city of Oshkosh, so I think the statement that chances are your tax bill is going to be even or going down is a pretty accurate one based on all the data that we do have available for Oshkosh residents,” said OASD board member and former council member Michael Ford.
Contact Justin Marville at jmarville@gannett.com and follow him on X (formerly Twitter) at @justinmarville.
This article originally appeared on Oshkosh Northwestern: Oshkosh school district raises tax levy by 2.54%, lowers mill rate to $7.81 in 2026 budget
Reporting by Justin Marville, Oshkosh Northwestern / Oshkosh Northwestern
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