Today on A Public Affair, Paul Reilly, and David Schmiedke dove into the details of local property taxes, the first show in a new series about decoding your tax bill. Reilly is the former Comptroller for the city of Madison from 1969-1996, and Schmiedke is the current financial director for the city. Property taxes account for 70% of the 477 million dollar budget needed to operate the City of Madison, making it the primary source of funding at the local level in Wisconsin. One third of these taxes pay for city services such as police, fire, trash, plowing, libraries and parks, 50% funds public schools, 12% goes to Dane county services and the last 2-3% goes to the technical college system, mainly Madison College.

In Madison, there is just under 50 billion dollars of taxable property, but a significant portion of property is not taxable. These include state government buildings, UW Madison education buildings, churches, and non-profit hospitals. The conversation covered tax incremental financing, the history of income taxing (Wisconsin was the first state to tax on income) and how the state collects and shares income and sales tax with local governments. For more information about where your tax money goes, visit the City of Madison budget here.

David Schmiedicke is a career budget and finance professional with nearly 40 years of experience in Wisconsin state and local government and is currently the Finance Director for the City of Madison, Wisconsin. David was appointed by Governors of both parties to serve as State Budget Director and Deputy State Budget Director from 2001 to 2011. Prior to that, he was the administrator of the State of Wisconsin Building Program, served as Secretary of the State Building Commission, and was a team leader and analyst in the State Budget Office. David has served as a standing committee chair and on the executive board of the Government Finance Officers Association, as well as on the executive board of the National Association of State Budget Officers.

Paul Reilly is a 1962 graduate from the University of Wisconsin, and started his career in the private sector where he worked for seven years. In 1969 he was appointed to the position of Comptroller for the City of Madison, Wisconsin and, with various duty and job changes, held that position until he retired from the City early in 1996; shortly after being appointed to the Governmental Accounting Standards Board. During his career with the City of Madison, Paul was active in several professional associations. He served on the Executive Board of the Government Finance Officers’ Association of the United States and Canada from 1983 to 1986 and was President of the Wisconsin chapter from 1982 to 1986. He was President of the Wisconsin League of Municipalities for a two year term and was one of the founders of the Wisconsin Municipal Mutual Insurance Company. Paul also served as Senior Lecturer on Governmental Accounting and Finance at the University of Wisconsin, Madison from 1974 to 1999.

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