WHITEWATER — A group of taxpayers in the city of Whitewater are expressing concern over what they call “alarming property tax increases.”
The group, which calls itself the Whitewater Common Sense Citizens, hosted a meeting at 841 Brewhouse on the city’s east side Wednesday night, discussing issues in the city, mostly tax hikes, largely caused by two referendums approved by voters in April.
One referendum was in the city and another was in the Whitewater Unified School District. Wednesday’s meeting was attended by about 25 people and led by Larry Kachel, a former Whitewater Unified School Board president and former member of the city’s community development authority.
Some meeting attendees reported seeing their 2026 tax bills rise 20-30% over 2025.
“Everyone felt the pain,” Kachel said.
Kachel shared his tax bill on Buckingham Boulevard. He said it went up $1,000 from $4,700, which would be over 20%.
The $1.3 million city referendum approved in April will allow for the addition of two cross-trained firefighters and EMTS, five police officers, one dispatcher and necessary equipment.
Ahead of the meeting, the citizens group issued a press release stating that members called the meeting because of “alarming property tax increases.”
Prior to the meeting, City Manager John Weidl said of the concerns expressed by the group “message received.”
“We’re doing everything we can do now so we don’t have to ask for a referendum in the future,” Weidl said.
As the city approved its referendum last spring, the Whitewater school district also approved a $30 million capital referendum.
“I hope the city and school district have learned their lesson and not pass referendums in the same year because it’s costly to the taxpayers,” Kachel said.
Kachel encouraged attendees to be proactive, including contacting their elected officials in the city, becoming a citizen board member and running for seats on the common council.
“Taxes seem to go up less when there are more contested races,” Kachel said.
In June, the city received a letter from Fort Atkinson based-Russell Law Offices that it was exercising a termination clause in its legal services agreement, leaving the city without a city attorney after July 31.
City Manager John Weidl wanted to make sure it was clear that the operating referendum was strictly for police, fire and EMS, not for legal services. Legal services were unrelated and it was a coincidence that hiring a new city attorney months after the referendum was approved by city voters, he said.
With the city referendum approved, the Jefferson County portion of the city is seeing a tax rate of $7.72 in 2026, which leads to the city portion of the tax bill on a $300,000 home being $2,316. In Walworth County the tax rate ended up being $7.52, and the city portion of the tax bill in that portion of the city on a $300,000 home is $2,256.
Property values grew faster in the Jefferson County portion of the city than in Walworth County, which was not expected when the city issued projections ahead of the referendum. As Jefferson County grew at a faster rate, tax distribution shifted more toward the direction of the Jefferson County portion of the city. Jefferson County city residents had a tax increase of $1.60 and Walworth County residents had a tax increase of $.95.
Blitch said the city started looking at property values for taxes for the budget with the referendum implications in late January. At that time, those were only projections. Property value numbers don’t get to the city until August.
“We’re looking at all things constant, this is what you know so we take what currently have and assume that it will grow at the same rate which essentially doesn’t change how the mill rate would be affected, but what we saw was that Jefferson County’s net new construction overall like that entire growth was at a higher rate,” Blitch said.
Aubrey Thompson, a candidate for the common council’s at-large seat, was a guest at the meeting and seeking signatures on her nomination papers.
The city argues adding police officers is important because of call volume increasing and because the department hasn’t added an officer in 17 years. On the fire department side, the city says that there has been a 52% increase in overlapping emergency calls, leading to simultaneous calls occurring about 20% of the time, leading to the department being stressed.
