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7/16/2009
Appleton School District will raise tax levy 9.6% to maximum allowed
In a week in which school districts across the state were shocked at learning limited state aid funds were going to be even lower than initially expected, those school districts are reacting differently in doling out the consequences to local taxpayers.
We’re talking about property tax hikes here – but be mindful too, that state taxes and fees have already increased by $3.3 billion this year.
Those state taxes and fees increased while at the same time state aids – state spending for schools and municipalities – decreased in the just-approved 2009-11 state budget. A Post-Crescent editorial yesterday described the consequences – consequences fiscal conservatives in the legislature have been alerting us to since Governor Doyle first introduced his 2009-11 budget earlier this year.
“School funding error leaves taxpayers holding the bag.“
More than 90 school districts are facing state funding cuts of more than 15 percent. And this is after lawmakers said no school district should experience more than a 10 percent cut under the newly adopted state budget.
Rushing the enormously complex budget toward its deadline probably didn't help. Sure, it was approved on time for the first time in decades, but the fallout comes as a nasty shock to many schools — and taxpayers — who are already feeling the pinch. School districts are responding to state aid cuts in different ways. For example, Racine Unified was reported to be increasing their total tax levy over 12%, making no additional budget cuts and opting to increase the levy to replace lost state aid, dollar for dollar.
New Berlin, on the other hand has opted to cut spending below the maximum increases allowed by the legislature, increasing the total tax levy by $778,000 instead of the maximum allowed levy increase of $2.48 million.
Don Hietpas, AASD Chief Financial Officer, suggested it’s important to look at comparative per pupil expenditures when comparing districts. New Berlin, at $9,673/pupil (2007-08 budget) was budgeted at slightly higher than the state average of $9,510/student. Racine too, was above the average at $9,661. Appleton, Hietpas argued, at $9,156 per student, was already spending significantly under the state average in 2007-08, and had less, if any room to opt to cut spending.
The Numbers for Appleton
School officials must abide by revenue limits, with state aids plus the total property tax levy increasing this year by no more than $200 per student over last year’s comparable revenues. That allowable increase for 2008-09 was $275; the legislature limited the increase for 2009-10 and 2010-11 because they were decreasing state aids, and wanted to limit the impact of that decrease on property taxes, that would have to increase to make up the difference.
State aids for AASD for the 2008-2009 school year totaled $87,351,523; state aids for 2009-2010 total $84,392,929, a decrease of almost $3 million, or 3.4%.
The total tax levy for 2008-09 was $55,479,645. Given the $200 increase cap, the maximum the levy can increase is to $60,780,002 – an increase of $5,300,357, or 9.6%. The district will not be doing additional cost cutting as New Berlin did, and will be passing on the full 9.6% increase to Appleton and Grand Chute taxpayers.
Having initially cut their budget to allow for a $275 per student increase, AASD will not be cutting further to meet the new $200 increase standard (an increase, you recall, that applies only to state aids plus the tax levy), but rather will be using new federal stimulus dollars to make up the difference (about $1 million a year). Asked what AASD will do when the stimulus dollars are all of a sudden no longer there, i.e., for the 2010-2011 budget, Hietpas said the district is “certainly going to have to review how we do business.” Everything will be on the table. Including a referendum? According to Hietpas, a referendum is not being discussed – he has heard no mention of it by the board.
Jo Egelhoff, FoxPolitics.net
COMMENTS
Thanks for your very informative blog. Can you make an educated guess as to what the impact will be on a $150,000 house?
I saw a friend yesterday. He has been "downsized" and now makes 25% of his former salary. A substantial raise in property taxes is not good for him.
David (Thu Jul 16 08:42:38 2009)
Don Hietpas provides the following tax info:
"The tax rate was $8.01/ $1000 for 2009. If I use a 2% increase in the equalized valuation (which is much more conservative than the historical trend), the rate for 2010 will be $8.60/ $1000."
Jo (Thu Jul 16 20:02:10 2009)
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