Property taxes can be a sore subject for many homeowners especially when the bill arrives in the mail. Gov. Scott Walker likes to tout his record on property taxes, but does it pass PolitiFact Wisconsin's Truth-O-Meter.
Walker is expected next year to run for a third term as governor, but he's still talking up his nine-year record as Milwaukee County Executive.
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"He says that when he was the Milwaukee County Executive he pushed through budgets in eight of nine years that did not raise the property tax levy," said Tom Kertscher with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
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PolitiFact Wisconsin found that Walker's county budgets eventually fell into a pattern. He would propose a levy that would NOT raise taxes but the county board would make changes that resulted in the levy going up. Thus a yearly financial tug of war with the board.
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"Walker in turn would issue vetoes in an attempt to keep the levy frozen but ultimately the levy would go up based on the final budget that the County Board approved," said Kertscher.
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PolitiFact Wisconsin says Walker eventually used the increased levy from the previous year as his proposed levy for next year's budget.
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"What we found, is that the governor when he was the Milwaukee County Executive he did fight for county budgets that would not raise the property tax levy however he was largely not successful," said Kertscher.
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PolitiFact Wisconsin rated Walker's claim Mostly False - meaning it contains only an element of truth.
