Politics & Government
Where Do My Taxes Go?
Notice that 30.6% of your total taxes support the City of Wauwatosa.
December 29, 2020
Wauwatosa property owners received their 2020 tax bill in the mail in December. You can also view your tax bill online.
Find out what's happening in Wauwatosafor free with the latest updates from Patch.
What do your taxes support?
- Milwaukee County, 20.2%
- MMSD, 7%
- MATC, 5.1%
- Wauwatosa School District, 37.1%
- City of Wauwatosa, 30.6%
Notice that 30.6% of your total taxes support the City of Wauwatosa. The remaining amount supports Milwaukee County, Wauwatosa School District, Milwaukee Area Technical College, and the Metropolitan Milwaukee Sewer District.
An Average Tax Bill
For an average Wauwatosa home (valued at $268,000), the tax bill would be $6,274. The city portion of a tax bill is 30.6% or $1,922, so this means the monthly bill for city services is $160.14.
Find out what's happening in Wauwatosafor free with the latest updates from Patch.
The city portion of your tax bill supports an array of services. This means for $160.14 per month, you get fire protection and police response in the event you need it. You get your trash and recycling collected, leaf and yard waste collection (which some other cities don’t offer), public health services, parks to play in, access to books, media, and programming at the library, well-maintained streets to drive on, and plowed streets to get you where you need to go in the winter.
If you consider Public Works services alone, this accounts for $12.36 of that monthly total. In 2020, the Department of Public Works has:
- Collected 11,000 tons of refuse
- Collected 5,200 tons of recycling
- Collected 1,500 tons of curbside yard waste
- Collected 3,800 tons of leaves
- Patched city streets using 608 tons of asphalt
- Cleaned over 600 catch basins and remove 100 tons of debris
- Removed 700 tons of debris from city streets when street sweeping
- Cleaned 100,000 linear feet of sanitary sewers; over 18 miles
- Pruned 2,717 trees
- Repaired 70 water main breaks
- Pumped 1,500,000,000 gallons of water
- Completed 5,400 repairs to vehicles and equipment
This press release was produced by the City of Wauwatosa. The views expressed here are the author’s own.