Total operating spending across all Wisconsin cities and villages increased sharply in 2023 after a period of high inflation, the Wisconsin Policy Forum’s 2025 Municipal DataTool shows.
Across all cities and villages in the state, average operating spending per resident reached $1,192 in 2023 compared to $1,112 the prior year, an increase of 7.1%. This rise may be attributed in part to the high rates of inflation in 2022 and 2023, which put upward pressure on labor and other costs for municipalities.
These are among the findings from the Forum’s annual update to our Municipal DataTool, or MuniTool. The tool provides interactive data on municipal government spending and services for all 606 cities and villages in Wisconsin – from the village of Yuba (population 53) to the city of Milwaukee.
The 10 years of data for each metric come from reports compiled by the state Department of Revenue for 2023 and 2024. Dashboards within the tool focus on property taxes, municipal spending, debt, fund balances, shared revenue (a key form of state aid), property values, and income and population.
For each of the interactive sections of the MuniTool, users may choose data from as many as 10 municipalities to compare and also choose to compare metrics across all municipalities in a county. The tool also includes a “Key Findings” section that summarizes major statewide trends. Additional key findings from the tool include:
MUNICIPAL SPENDING
- Net basic spending also rose in 2023 across all cities and villages, but not at the same high rate as total spending. Net basic spending increased 3.6% to $745 per capita. Total operating spending is the sum of 68 expense line items that cities and village report to the Department of Revenue. They include items such as public health, parks and recreation, public works, conservation, and development. The four largest of these – general government, street maintenance, fire-EMS, and police – are grouped together as basic spending.
- Three of the four items within basic spending had greater than usual increases. Spending for street maintenance, fire-EMS, and police increased in 2023 at rates of 5.0%, 5.8%, and 4.8%, respectively. On the other hand, spending on general government decreased by 3.9%, which is not unusual in odd-numbered years, because they lack the additional costs of presidential and midterm elections.
PROPERTY TAXES
- The total municipal property tax levy across all cities and villages exceeded $3 billion for the first time in 2024. This high mark represents a 4.0% increase over 2023 and a 38% increase over the last decade. The average per capita property tax levy also grew but at a slower rate of 3.3% to $710 in 2024.
- Meanwhile, the statewide average tax rate per $1,000 of equalized property value for cities and villages decreased to its lowest level in 2024 at $5.70. This is a 2.9% decrease from 2023 and a drop of 27% from 2015 when the rate was $7.80 per $1,000 of value. This decrease occurred because the value of property in Wisconsin has grown at a significantly faster pace than city and village tax levies.
INCOME TAXES
- The total state adjusted gross income for residents of Wisconsin cities and villages increased 3.3% in 2023, reaching more than $168 billion. This follows two years of rapid growth; adjusted gross income rose by 6.2% and 8.0% in 2021 and 2022, respectively.
- Conversely, paid individual income taxes from these same municipalities remained relatively flat at $6.3 billion. The trends between paid income taxes and adjusted gross income continued to diverge in the most recent data. Since 2019, adjusted gross income in cities and villages has had steady annual growth, while paid income taxes have grown more slowly – a result in part of state income tax cuts. This differs markedly from the relationship between these metrics in much of the 2010s, when they both followed the same upward trajectory.
MUNICIPAL DEBT
- Across all municipalities, total general obligation, or G.O., debt rose to $8.8 billion in 2023, increasing by 2.9%. This is the smallest annual increase in the past decade in G.O. debt, which is backed by municipal tax levies. Only 33.7% of individual municipalities actually increased their debt, while the majority reported lower debt in 2023.
- As a share of the state debt limit on municipalities, total G.O. debt decreased from 35.2% in 2022 to 32.2% in 2023. In the mid-2010s, total municipal debt hovered around 42% of the debt limit but has been below 40% since 2021. The dip has resulted from city and village borrowing being outpaced by increases in property values, which are a factor in the debt limit.
Click here to access the 2025 Municipal DataTool.
The Wisconsin Policy Forum is the state’s leading source of nonpartisan, independent research on state and local public policy. As a nonprofit, our research is supported by members including hundreds of corporations, nonprofits, local governments, school districts, and individuals. Visit wispolicyforum.org to learn more.
