OSHKOSH – The city’s portion of the property tax bill is going down.
So, too, the city’s contribution to the animal shelter — for now.
Oshkosh will be maintaining a flat tax levy while lowering its mill rate by 37 cents after Common Council adopted next year’s budget, including the proposal to reduce the Oshkosh Area Humane Society contract by just more than 44%.
Council unanimously approved the nearly $236 million operating budget at the Nov. 11 Common Council meeting, keeping the tax levy set at $47 million and reducing the tax rate from $8.14 to $7.77.
The lowered mill rate came in 3 cents higher than the city’s previously proposed rate of $7.74, but that was impacted by the Wisconsin Department of Revenue’s final manufacturing assessments coming in lower than anticipated.
How much will I pay under the new tax rate?
Under the $7.77 rate, the owner of a home valued at $200,000 would pay $1,554 for the city’s portion of the tax bill, down from last year’s total of $1,628 for the same property.
And most Oshkosh residential properties saw no change in their assessed value this year, with only 947 homes witnessing a nominal average increase of 0.8%.
“Personally, I view this budget as one of the first steps in a larger efficiency drive for the City of Oshkosh and just being efficiency minded,” said council member Jacob Floam in praising city staff.
“We know a lot of families are cash strapped, a lot of families who work in this city are living paycheck to paycheck, and for us, as a city, we should be as responsible as we can be with that while making the necessary investments and delivering on the services that our residents require and expect from their tax dollars.”
Preparing her first budget as Oshkosh City Manager, Rebecca Grill said the city was not looking to cut any existing services despite starting the budget process with a $6.1 million deficit.
What about the OAHS contract?
The initial proposal did draw the public’s ire as the Oshkosh Police Department looked to right-size its OAHS contract from $107,582 to $60,000.
But Chief of Police Dean Smith previously hinted at finalizing a new contract soon before Grill said city staff is “hopeful that something will be done by the end of this week that we can bring to the council at the end of the month.”
What else is in the budget?
The overall operating budget is set at $235,778,896, with the $47 million tax levy allotted as follows:
Oshkosh is also anticipating getting an additional $300,000 for the Municipal Services Payment program.
Some other budget features include the following:
Common Council previously expressed angst heading into this year’s budget process after previously moving $3.6 million from the general fund to minimize the impact of last year’s hike in residential property values.
“I thought it was going to be a huge success if property taxes stay level and didn’t go up at all or went up by a little bit, instead we came in with a reduction,” said Deputy Mayor Joe Stephenson.
Despite the proposed lowered mill rate, commercial properties could still see an increase in property taxes, having witnessed a 22% average increase in property values this year.
The revaluation for 2,074 commercial properties made up for last year’s gaffe, where an outside firm assessed those properties at what the Department of Revenue determined to be only 85% of their full market value.
Winnebago County and the Oshkosh Area School District also adopted their 2026 budgets with lowered mill rates, setting the tax rates at $3.41 and $7.81, respectively.
Contact Justin Marville at jmarville@usatodayco.com and follow him on X (formerly Twitter) at @justinmarville.
This article originally appeared on Oshkosh Northwestern: Oshkosh lowers tax rate by 37 cents in adopted $236M operating budget. What it means.
Reporting by Justin Marville, Oshkosh Northwestern / Oshkosh Northwestern
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