Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. The holiday season is busy for all of us, and it is one of the best seasons to see Liberty in action and used in ways that uplift us all. The choices we make as to where we will do our holiday shopping, which charities we will contribute dollars to and what we do with our time seem to all center on the idea that Christmas is for everyone. We reach out to those in need and those who are downtrodden. We want to provide a lift to those with low spirits. We want God to “bless us, everyone.” The coming New Year has many of us thinking of changes we can make in our lives to make things better. Maybe we look to eating better, getting healthier, helping more charities, mentoring children or any number of other choices. It underscores the goodness in the souls of most of us. I’ve never heard anyone make a resolution to gain weight or to get in more arguments with their neighbor. We seem to feel a keener definition on what a society should look like. ...

Let me explain this as simply as I can. See if you can follow this tiny government example. Your government receives $1000 in taxes each year and has $1000 in expenses. Taxes are predictable and stable. Then, your governing board decides that an item is needed that is outside the budget. Rules prevent them from raising taxes. They could “tighten their belt” and find areas to cut to accommodate the new expense. But instead, they decide it would be easier to borrow $100 for 10 years at a 5% interest rate. Even at simple interest rates, this means that the cost of the money borrowed is $5.00 that first year. The government must increase their expenses by $5.00 that year to cover the interest. With principal repayment, the government has now created a deficit of $15. They can either hope the rules allow them to raise taxes to balance the budget, or they may have to borrow again to cover the difference. This example can be expanded by moving the decimal point. A $10,000,000 budget and $1,000,000 in borrowing in the same example brings a burden of $150,000 per year....

Are you tired of your property taxes increasing every year while your household income doesn’t? Local government is an interesting entity. We all know that we can’t spend more than we make and expect our neighbors to make up the difference. In the governmental view, however, that doesn’t appear to be true. So what is one to do? Don’t let them get away with it. You don’t have to. You can do your homework on current Rock County Board Supervisors and see how they vote. (You can obviously do this at your local municipal level as well). Better still, seek out board members and ask some questions right now. You might ask why the county has continually allowed a budget process that ends in the result of spending growth outpacing the county resident’s ability to pay for it, or the growth of our community. You could ask what your county board supervisor is doing to drop Rock County’s status as one of the top four percent highest taxed counties in the nation (relative to personal income). You could ask them about upcoming budget items they plan to support and those they would not support funding with taxpayer dollars. Your board supervisors might be your neighbors, but is their hand out to help you, or to grab even more of your hard earned money? (BTW: ALL County Supervisors are up for re-election next April). ...

Key takeaways: It is the 2026 budget season for local governments. Time to learn about how much you are taxed, locally, and get engaged with your local representatives to ask questions. This document is meant to help you to have these conversations! County debt and expenditures are outpacing Rock County citizen’s ability to pay, and the growth in population in the county. Unsustainable! As reported in a previous RCF Did You Know (DYK) document, property taxes in Rock County are out of proportion with the citizen’s ability to pay, due to a systemic lagging personal income in Rock County. More specifically, Rock County’s property taxes are higher than 96% of ALL counties in the US, relative to personal income. This inequity is created primarily by county, school district and municipality taxing authorities assessing tax levies which collectively do not adequately take into account Rock County citizen’s abililty to pay - in relation to the average personal income in the county....

WHY DOES THE DPI SCORING MATTER? Like any successful business or individual, there needs to be some method to measure & compare performance and progress over time. The WI Department of Public Instruction (DPI) provides the only method for parents and citizens to track the performance and progress of their school district over time, as compared to other school districts. The DPI Scorecard is not a perfect tool to accomplish this objective, but it is the best available method today. Since parents and taxpayers deserve to have this accountability, and since DPI believes this program is not effective to measure and compare performance and progress, then it is incumbent on DPI to develop and provide a better assessment program and to make it consistent from one year to the next. ...