More services = higher tax rates

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• Hudson-area tax rates

The more services that a municipality offers, the higher its tax rate. That’s the story told by a comparison of 2012 tax rates for Hudson-area municipalities.

The city of Hudson -- with a sizeable police department, public works department, city staff and library -- has a higher tax rate than the surrounding municipalities, particularly the townships.

The 2012 real estate taxes are collected to fund 2013 government operations.

The chart provided here shows the total tax rates for the municipalities -- including the share going to the Hudson School District, St. Croix County, Wisconsin Indianhead Technical College, the state of Wisconsin and the municipality.

The largest share of the tax bill in all municipalities goes to the school district. In the city of Hudson, it is 48.3 percent, and in the village of North Hudson, 44.3 percent.

The percentage going to the school district is generally higher in the towns, which spend less on municipal services.

In the city of Hudson, 23.6 percent of the total tax levy will go for city services, 20.9 percent to the county, 6.3 percent to the technical college, and 0.9 percent to the state.

In the village of North Hudson, 25.2 percent of the total tax levy will go for village services, 22.8 percent to the county, 6.8 percent to the technical college, and 0.9 percent to the state.

It is difficult to compare property taxes among municipalities because property usually isn’t assessed at the fair market, or equalized, value. The ratios of assessed value compared to the fair value vary from municipality to municipality.

This chart shows the tax rates used to calculate tax bills in each of the municipalities (Tax Bill Numbers), as well as what the tax rates would be if property was assessed at the fair market value (Equalized Numbers).

The equalized numbers are a fair comparison of tax rates from municipality to municipality.

The town of St. Joseph, with a fair market value tax rate more than a dollar higher than the other two towns, has its own fire department.

Tags: news, government, hudson