Racine: A 37% Fee Hike They're Calling "Essential."
We are organizing concerned residents to educate their neighbors, improve public policy at the local level, and lessen our tax burden. Are you in?
Racine's economic uncertainties by the numbers
Racine's economic challenges are real and persistent. Here is the data behind the local failures.
Racine's 2026 budget raises stormwater fees by as much as 37% for residents, plus a 4% hike to sewer lateral charges, the city's own budget documents admit these fee increases exist specifically to get around state property tax limits. Your property tax bill isn't the whole story anymore.
Racine's finance department is using $4.5 million from the city's savings just to balance the 2026 budget, and city officials admit that pace can't continue. When a government drains its rainy-day fund to cover routine expenses, the bill always comes due eventually, and it lands on residents.
The Racine Common Council voted 8-5 to raise the property tax levy $4.5 million for 2026, a jump one sitting alder called the worst increase in his entire career on the council. It passed anyway.
When Racine's council created new Tax Increment Districts, including one on the former YMCA site, it locked in an arrangement where RUSD, Gateway Technical College, and Racine County won't see new tax revenue from those areas for up to 27 years. That's a city hall decision with consequences well outside city hall.
What's Driving It
Policy Failures
Fee Hikes Instead of Honest Budgeting
Racine's city government openly admits it's raising fees, stormwater up to 37%, sewer charges up 4%, and more across nearly every department, specifically because state levy limits cap what it can raise through property taxes directly. Rather than making the case to residents for a real tax conversation, the city is quietly routing around the limit through your utility bill instead.
Draining Savings to Cover a Structural Deficit
City finance officials have acknowledged Racine's basic operating costs are rising faster than the levy is legally allowed to grow, and their solution for 2026 was to spend down $4.5 million in reserves rather than confront the deficit directly. Reserves exist for emergencies, not routine shortfalls. Spending them down year after year just delays a reckoning that residents will eventually have to pay for through bigger increases later.
Locking Away School and County Funding for Decades
By creating new Tax Increment Districts, Racine's council diverted future property tax revenue away from RUSD, Gateway Technical College, and Racine County — for up to 27 years — funneling it instead toward city-directed development projects, including a site with its own disputed acquisition history. When city hall can unilaterally reroute money that would otherwise fund schools and county services, residents lose a say in decisions that affect much more than city government alone.
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Education
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Connection
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Action
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