Wisconsin residents, including many in Kenosha County, are likely to see jumps in property taxes devoted to public schools as districts struggle with state aid cuts, according to a taxpayers group.

According to the Wisconsin Taxpayers Alliance, the vast majority of public school districts in the state — 292 statewide — will increase property taxes this year. Of those, the alliance estimates, 181 will have tax hikes of 10 percent or more, including some in Kenosha County.

Those increases are coming not because school districts are increasing spending, but because unprecedented cuts in state aid have forced schools to shift a larger share of their overall funding burden to local taxpayers.

For example, Salem School District will increase its tax levy by 9 percent, despite cuts that eliminated art, music and all extra-curricular activities.

“You have to go back to the time before revenue limits to see increases of this magnitude,” said Alliance spokesman Dale Knapp.

Knapp said school districts are caught in a trap between falling state aid and tighter state revenue limits. For many school districts, he said, that means they are cutting programs and budgets as overall revenue is squeezed, but are increasing taxes on local property taxpayers.

The state cut aid to schools by 2.7 percent for the 2009-10 school year, the first time the state cut overall school funding since at least 1993. While the overall cut is less than 3 percent, many schools are seeing double-digit decreases based on the state funding formula. Nearly 100 districts statewide will see drops of 15 percent or more.

Schools hit the hardest by the current state budget are those with declining enrollment or higher overall property values, with the state funding formula penalizing those schools and prompting larger cuts in aid.

“It’s very tough for people to understand,” said Knapp, who said taxpayers get angry at increases on their property tax bills because they believe schools are not working to control spending. At the same time, parents of children in public schools are upset because they are seeing class sizes rise and programs for students cut.

“It is a public relations nightmare for schools,” Knapp said.

In Salem, the 9 percent increase comes despite the fact that the district cut its overall spending by 5.4 percent. The district cut teaching and support staff, reduced programming such as art and music, increased class sizes and eliminated school-sponsored sports and extra-curriculars.

But even as the district cut spending, its state aid fell by $440,000, forcing the district to look to property taxes for a larger portion of its overall revenue.

Falling property values also pushed down the overall assessed value of the district, pushing up the district’s property tax rate.

Salem’s estimated property tax rate will be $6.23 per $1,000 of assessed valuation, up from $5.51 per $1,000 for last school year, a 13 percent increase.

For the owner of a home in Salem assessed at $200,000, the difference in the tax rate would increase the annual property tax bill by $144.