Cities and villages around Wisconsin are seeing growth, but there’s a split in where it’s happening.
The Wisconsin League of Municipalities say there was $5.6 billion worth of new development in 2016, and that’s the biggest increase since before the Great Recession. That accounted for a 1.8 percent percent boost in property values.
But Executive Director Jerry Deschane says smaller communities had growth rates of less than one percent. He says the rebound from the recession isn’t reaching all of Wisconsin.
Deschane says that divide is making it tougher for the smaller cities and villages to put together their budgets. He says that’s because they can only raise their property tax limit by their rate of growth. He says since that’s not keeping up with inflation, they’re being forced to make cuts.
