WGSD School Budget Update & Spending Alert

WGSD School Budget update and spending alert



I thought I would provide the community a quick update on WGSD’s budget for the 2011/2012 fiscal year that starts on July 1st. Since this situation is fluid with the legislators still working on the biennium budget and the liberal Madison courts tying up the budget repair bill, these numbers can still change.



Wisconsin businesses and taxpayers suffered quite a bit during the last governor’s 8 years of ever expanding government and the increase in taxes to pay for it. A lot of businesses left the state or limited hiring as a result of the poor businesses climate and the state’s tax base suffered as a result.



It was refreshing when Walker and the Republican’s regained control of the state’s finances. They were honest with the public when they said we can no longer plug a 3 billion dollar budget shortfall by expanding taxes and fees, but instead needed to make tough choices to improve the state’s business and tax climate. These tough choices meant a reduction in state equalization aid to schools of around $800 million over the next two years. WGSD administration estimates that to be about an $800,000 reduction for WGSD for the next fiscal year.



As part of the budget repair bill, Walker and the legislators provided school districts the means to reduce expenses to cover the reduction. This allows programming for students to remain in place and prevents huge property tax increases.



WGSD board plans on taking advantage of these provisions by having district employees pay half of the Wisconsin Retirement System which amounts to $400,000 per year. Public employees will still have a defined pension when they retire which will provide payments to them for the rest of their lives.



The bill also allows WGSD to increase the portion that employees pay towards health insurance from 7.5% to 12.6%. The board can also choose their own health insurance carrier rather than the union insurance plan. This provision will mean the union insurance plan will finally have to compete with other insurance companies and can no longer charge monopoly like prices due to union contract language. Through these provisions health insurance expenses were lowered by $240,000 per year. The new insurance plan and cost to employees is still better than what most taxpayers have.



Salaries were also reduced by $200,000 through a combination of reduced positions from attrition/smaller school enrollment and the retirement of some of our higher paid teachers.



Through the above provisions the board was able to cover the state reduction by decreasing expenses instead of raising taxes. Student programming was not reduced and we are even expanding the Spanish classes to other grades.

The WGSD finance committee is still reviewing some of the other worker ‘rights’ costs that the current union contract requires but the budget repair bill strikes down. Among these is a $4800 payment for employees that don’t need health insurance ($77,280 total cost), sick days that can be rolled over to a cash payout (current $389,000 unfunded liability), and post-retirement health insurance benefits that currently cost $138,000 per year.



As the school year winds down, take this opportunity to thank our teachers for their efforts in the classroom and also for taking this financial hit. While it was time to reset the taxpayer/union relationship since the previous path was unsustainable, this will impact the finances of our public employees.



Another creative aspect of the new budget proposal is revenue limits will be tightened. Revenue limits are the maximum that a school district can collect in property taxes and state equalization aid combined. In the past, if the state reduced aid to a school district the school district would just increase property taxes to cover it. Since I joined the WGSD board we no longer “tax to the max” and in fact have over a million dollars left on the table. The new revenue limits will prevent other school districts from raising property taxes an extreme amount.



Please keep in mind that your local school board has a lot of power to control or increase expenses. The current school board president is advocating for health retirement accounts and a new plan for taxpayers to buy laptops for WGSD students.



The taxpayer funded laptops will be reviewed by the finance committee at the June 6th committee meeting. The president has this fast tracked for a full board vote at a special meeting on June 9th. The taxpayers have all ready funded new PC’s and smart boards throughout the district over the last few years. If you have thoughts on this new technology plan please let your school board members know.



(Note: The opinions expressed in this article are mine alone and may not be reflective of the WGSD School Board.)



Chuck Poole

WGSD School Board Treasurer

Don't Forget To Vote Today - May 3rd!!!!!!

Scott Gunderson's Assembly seat is open in the 83rd District due to his appointment to the DNR by Governor Walker.