Understanding Your Property Tax Bill
School funding is complicated, but understanding how it will impact your property taxes should not be. The most simple explanation is that there are two main streams of revenue for PreK-12 public schools: property taxes and state aid. School districts have a revenue ceiling and for the District that amount is $11,650/per pupil. If state aid goes down, as it did this year, the difference is made up through property taxes.
It is also important to know that not all government agencies tax the same way. Brown County and municipalities tax against your assessed value, and the school district taxes against your fair market value. Fair market values recently have been increasing at a faster rate than assessed values due to the housing market and inflation. Ten years ago, fair market values increased on average 2-3% across the District. In more recent years fair market values on average have increased between 8-14%.
State Budget and Your Tax Bill
This year the 2025-27 State Budget significantly impacted property taxes. The budget has been called unprecedented, since for the first time, there was no new state general aid for PreK-12 public schools, despite the state having a significant budget surplus.
- The Legislative Fiscal Bureau shared that state general aid to public school districts was cut by approximately $170 million over the next two years.
- This is the 17th year in a row that public schools did not receive a per pupil cost of living increase.
- School districts received $325 per pupil increase for 2025/26 and 2026/27; however, it was not offset by state aid, which means school districts need to levy property taxes for the additional funding.
- According to the Legislative Fiscal Bureau a cost of living increase for 2025-26 would have been $413.93 per pupil.
- Public school districts had requested a 60% reimbursement rate for special education funding, and that it be guaranteed. Instead, the budget provides 42% and 45% reimbursement each year; however, because special education costs are increasing for all school districts, the DPI is projecting that the reimbursement is more likely to be 35% this school year.
- While public schools will receive a $650 per pupil increase over the two years, independent charters and private schools per pupil increase will be $1,068.
District Budget and Your Tax Bill
- Overall the tax levy is increasing by 5% from $109 million to $114 million because of three major factors:
- The state budget extended the $325 per pupil increase on the revenue limit but did not increase equalized aid, resulting in the additional $325 being shifted to local taxpayers.
- The District received $3 million less in equalized aid this year, which directly affects the levy (when aid goes down, local property taxes increase).
- The District will be levying $14,097,306 for vouchers this year. This is a $1M+ increase from the previous year which is primarily because of the increase in per pupil funding. There were only 54 new voucher students for the 2025-26 school year.
- The average increase in the equalized property value across the district was 8.77% mostly due to inflation.
- The mill rate decreased to $7.41 per $1,000 of equalized value, which is about a 3% drop from last year. This drop is due to the significant increase in equalized value. As a taxpayer, your individual results will vary based on where you live and what happens to your property value.
Your Property Tax Bill and the District’s Referendums
In 2024, property tax bills showed three referendum lines, which were the following:
- The 2017 operational referendum for $16.5 million for 10 years
- The 2022 capital referendum
- The 2024 capital referendum
The 2025, property tax bill only reflects two referendum lines, which are:
- The 2017 operational referendum for $16.5 million for 10 years
- The 2024 capital referendum
Leading up to the November election, the below chart (without the 2025-26 column) was shared on the District website, on social media, in mailings to homeowners, and during community presentations. The chart shows the proposed new debt from the 2024 referendum backfilling in the debt paid off from the 2022 referendum. The 2022 referendum is now paid off, and now the 2024 referendum has backfilled that portion of the tax levy.
For the last several referendums, the District has been able to ask voters to approve referendums with “minimal tax levy impact.” This is because the District has historically structured its debt, so that it takes on new debt when old debt is paid off, allowing it to hold or reduce the mill rate. The mill rate is the amount the District taxes per $1,000 of equalized home value. The mill rate is at a historic low at $7.41 per $1,000 of equalized home value. In 2016, the mill rate was $10.16.
So why not just keep the levy for the 2024 referendum the same and lower taxes?
While school districts may ask voters to increase their tax rate to fund a referendum, GBAPS has in recent referendums asked voters to allow the District to borrow funds to replace old debt and hold the tax rate steady or to decrease it slightly. The District’s strategy to maintain a stable mill rate helps avoid large increases and decreases from year to year. In addition, maintaining our facilities, provides students and staff with safe and appropriate learning spaces, and maintains home values for residents. Paying off the referendum over a shorter period of time, also reduces the amount taxpayers pay in interest on the debt.
In 1993, the State Legislature put revenue limits in place for school districts. At that time GBAPS was a low spending school district. Prior to 1993, when the District needed to make facility improvements, the Board of Education had the taxing authority to borrow debt (which may or may not have increased taxes, depending on whether the District was replacing paid off debt or taking on additional debt). After 1993, the Legislature required school districts to ask voters through a referendum to allow them to borrow funds to make facility improvements or to increase their revenue through additional property taxes. The end result is school districts across the state having a backlog of needed facility improvements.
New on Your 2025 Tax Bill, if You are a City of Green Bay Resident
On November 27, 2023, the Board of Education passed a resolution calling for voucher transparency. The signed resolution was sent to the Mayor of Green Bay, with a request that the amount that the District levies to pay for vouchers be included on property tax bills.
On April 15, 2025, the Green Bay City Council voted to support adding a line under the “Note” section of the tax bill. The note reads as follows:
“Of the amount levied by GBAPS, XXX is for the purpose of private school vouchers.”
Starting on the December 2025 property tax bills, residents will see the amount that the District levies additionally, to pay for the voucher program. For 2025, that amount levied for the City of Green Bay is $9,972,474.70. The total amount levied for all municipalities is $14,097,036.
The voucher amount levied equals about $91 per $100,000 of an individual's fair market value. (Example: If you own a home with a fair market value of $300,000, $273 of your taxes paid to GBAPS is for the purpose of recouping funds withheld by the state for private school vouchers.)
Sample tax bill with the 2024-25 levied amount for vouchers:
Why add voucher information to the tax bill?
The rationale to ask for the voucher levied amount on the tax bill was to provide transparency to taxpayers.
Currently, state law requires that the property bills breakdown how much of the District's tax levy is for the purposes of a capital or operational referendum. By providing the amount levied for the voucher programs, property owners are able to see what is being levied that does not go directly to the school district.
When the Wisconsin Parental Choice Program was started in the 2014-15 school year, the cost of the program was paid from the state’s general fund.
Beginning in 2015-16, the Legislature changed the funding. The voucher payments for students within a school district are withheld from a school district's final state aid payment, and show up as an expense in a school district’s budget. In order to have enough money to cover their budget, School Boards may increase their levy to cover the reduction for vouchers, thereby passing the cost on to taxpayers, or cut their budgets by the reduction in aid. (For this school year, that would have required the District to cut more than $14M.)
The Green Bay Area Public School District has chosen to levy for the reduced state aid. Since 2015-16, the amount the District has levied for private school vouchers has increased by 902%.
The amount levied has grown significantly due to the increase in voucher payments, more so, than an increase in students participating in the program.
In 2015-16 and 2016-17, the total number of pupils residing in the district who could participate in the choice program from each district was limited to no more than one percent of the district’s prior year membership. Starting in the 2017-18 school year, the enrollment limit increased by one percentage point in each year. This continued until this school year (2025-26) when the limit reached 10%. Beginning in 2026-27, there will no longer be a student enrollment limit.
Voucher Levy Amount by Municipality
This table shows how much each municipality is levied for voucher payments for the 2025-26 school year.
| Municipality | 2025-26 Levy |
|---|---|
| Town of Eaton | $37,891 |
| Town of Green Bay | $10,242 |
| Town of Humboldt | $78,517 |
| Town of Ledgeview | $21,064 |
| Town of Scott | $640,242 |
| Village of Allouez | $1,515,203 |
| Village of Bellevue | $1,821,672 |
| City of Green Bay | $9,972,475 |
Levy Change For Vouchers
| School Year | District Levy | District Levy Change | Private School Voucher Levy | Private School Voucher Levy Percentage Change |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025-26 | $115,239,887 | 5.39% | $14,097,306 | 10.34% |
| 2024-25 | $109,351,151 | (.02%) | $12,776,090 | 11% |
| 2023-24 | $109,377,882 | 12.35% | $11,508,893 | 29.73% |
| 2022-23 | $97,358,393 | 1.41% |
$8,871,632 | 3.39% |
| 2021-22 | $96,001,905 | 0.45% | $8,580,632 | 11.72% |
| 2020-21 | $95,574,859 | 2.96% | $7,680,776 | 18.91% |
| 2019-20 | $92,825,840 | 4.09% | $6,459,252 | 36.20% |
| 2018-19 | $89,180,561 | 2.49% | $4,742,626 | 80.33% |
| 2017-18 | $87,010,774 | 3.50% | $2,629,948 |
126.63% |
| 2016-17 | $84,069,505 | 1.43% | $1,160,476 | -17.49 |
Voucher Amounts By Year
The following are voucher payments per student for each school year and the number of students who live in the District that receive a voucher.
| Year | K-8 Voucher | 9-12 Voucher | Special Needs Voucher | Total Number of Students Receiving Vouchers (Full-Time Equivalent) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025-26 | $10,877 | $13,371 | $16,049 | 1,217.5 |
| 2024-25 | $10,237 | $12,731 | $15,409 | 1,169.2 |
| 2023-24 | $9,893 | $12,387 | $15,065 | 1,106.9 |
| 2022-23 | $8,399 | $9,045 | $13,076 | 1,055.6 |
| 2021-22 | $8,336 | $8,982 | $1,013 | 1,034.2 |
| 2020-21 | $8,300 | $8,946 | $12,977 | 933.2 |
| 2019-20 | $8,046 | $8,692 | $12,723 | 823.1 |
| 2018-19 | $7,754 | $8,400 | $12,431 | 647.0 |
| 2017-18 | $7,530 | $8,176 | N/A | 402.5 |
| 2016-17 | $7,323 | $7,969 | N/A | 223.0 |
Updated December 23, 2025