Fitchburg Budget Explorer

The Fitchburg Budget Explorer estimates how your City of Fitchburg property tax dollars are allocated across City services and departments. Enter your property's assessed value, and the calculator estimates the portion of your City property tax bill that supports areas such as police, fire, parks, transportation, public works, and other City services. The goal is to make the City's budget easier to understand by translating budget numbers into something more familiar: how much of your property tax dollars goes toward each area of City government.

No. The City receives money from many different sources, including property taxes, state and federal grants, user fees, charges for services, intergovernmental revenues, and other sources. The Budget Explorer focuses specifically on the portion of City spending supported by the property tax levy. It is therefore not intended to show every dollar the City spends or every source of City revenue. For example, if the City spends $3 million on transportation but $1.5 million is funded by a state grant and $1.5 million is funded by the property tax levy, the Budget Explorer attributes $1.5 million to transportation.

Some City expenses are funded entirely or primarily through sources other than the property tax levy. The Budget Explorer is designed to answer the question: "How are my City property tax dollars being used?" It therefore does not attribute spending to residents when that spending is funded by grants, fees, or other non-levy revenues. This means the amounts shown for individual departments or services may be lower than the total amount that department or service actually spends.

Because grants and other revenues aren't paid through your property tax levy. For example, suppose the City receives a $1 million state grant to fund a particular project. That $1 million is part of the City's overall budget and may support an important City service, but it isn't money collected through Fitchburg property taxes. The Budget Explorer is intended to show where the property tax levy goes, rather than where every dollar in the City's overall budget goes. In the future, the Explorer may incorporate additional information about other revenue sources to provide a more complete picture of City finances.

No. The Budget Explorer calculates the City of Fitchburg portion of your property tax bill. Your total property tax bill also supports other taxing jurisdictions, including Dane County, your local school district, and Madison Area Technical College (MATC). The Explorer only calculates the portion attributable to the City of Fitchburg.

The calculation starts with the City's adopted budget and identifies expenditures supported by the property tax levy. Those levy-supported expenditures are then organized by department or service area. The percentage of the total levy allocated to each area is applied to the estimated City property tax amount for your property. For example, if 10% of the City's property tax levy supports the Fire Department, the Explorer estimates that approximately 10% of your City property tax payment supports the Fire Department. The result is an estimate intended to make the budget easier to understand. It should not be interpreted as a literal accounting of individual tax dollars or as a statement that a specific portion of your payment is placed into a particular department's account.

The Budget Explorer uses publicly available information from the City of Fitchburg's adopted budget and property tax information. The underlying budget information is public and can be found through the City's budget and financial documents. The Budget Explorer is an independently created project and is not an official City of Fitchburg website or product. It is intended to make publicly available financial information easier for residents to understand and explore.

The Budget Explorer will be updated when a new City budget is adopted. The current version is based on the 2026 adopted City budget. Following adoption of the 2027 budget, the Explorer will be updated to reflect the new budget. Additional updates may be made when necessary to correct errors or improve the methodology. Future versions may also include additional information, such as how other revenue sources contribute to City services or how the budget changes from one year to the next.