The City of Manitowoc will allow the Manitowoc Public School District to show how its funding goes toward the state’s voucher school program.
The Common Council voted unanimously last night to allow the district to provide the city with a flyer that city staff see fit as a separate insert in the City of Manitowoc tax bills.
MPSD would have to take on extra costs and prepare the flyer before the Common Council approves its 2027 budget.
The discussion happened during the Committee of the Whole meeting, with 5th District Alderman Mason Benzinger moving to create a document showing the mill rate from taxing entities like the district, Lakeshore College, and Manitowoc County.
After an alderman mentioned putting it on the district’s website, 9th District Alderman Brett Norell said an insert wouldn’t provide enough detail if the city wants to be transparent.
“MPSD, or any taxing entity, could easily put it on their website, where they could put the entire budget,” he stated. “They could talk about their revenues, their expenses, lay it all out in detail, and give me that link. I like that idea. I didn’t think of a link or website on the page to say put it there and let them educate the public.”
Some council members, including 1st District Alderman Andrew Dunbar, were concerned about Manitowoc’s aging population and felt a physical insert was best.
“You start getting up there to the 60, 70, 80-year-olds; they don’t want to use a QR code,” he replied. “They don’t want to have to dig 35 clicks into a website deep to find it, which is roughly what you have to do now. I’ll give a dollar to anybody in this room right now that can pull up the budget from the Manitowoc website within five minutes. It’s very deep.”
3rd District Alderman Mike Cummings told the council that the idea that older residents can’t get online is bogus, saying that if they are interested in voucher school payments on tax bills, they will find a way to get the information.
“Websites…are living things,” he explained. “So even if it takes three clicks right now, you can literally put a link on the Manitowoc’s homepage right now if you want to go and explain your tax bill. You can put a link on, you can put a button. You can literally make it where you can type in a URL, and it takes you where you want to go. You don’t even need a QR code.”
Council President Eric Sitkiewitz then moved to allow the insert, as long as the district creates it.
This follows a request from MPSD Superintendent Lee Thennes and other educators to add a line to city tax bills showing how much district money goes to the state’s voucher school program.
The City of Two Rivers previously approved adding a line to its tax bills last month.
