Story originally printed in the Tomah Journal or online at www.tomahjournal.com
Published - Thursday, July 02, 2009
School budget news grim
The Tomah School Board heard grim budget news during a special meeting Tuesday at the Robert Kupper Learning Center.
School district Business Manager Greg Gaarder presented preliminary 2009-10 budget figures that project a 13.25 percent tax levy increase. He said that situation could get worse depending on how the state budget turns out. The two houses of the state Legislature have agreed on a two-year budget, and Gov. Jim Doyle is in the process of making line-item vetoes.
“It’s not a good story,” Gaarder said. “This may very well be the best-case scenario.”
Gaarder’s projections include a 2 percent decrease in state equalization aid, which accounts for two-thirds of the district’s revenue. The budget also accounts for $320,000 in federal stimulus money and $200,000 in technology vouchers from Microsoft that the district would apply to the 2009-10 budget.
Gaarder said the district was put into a difficult situation when the governor introduced a budget in February that proposed a freeze in state aid and then revised those numbers downward once the state’s budget condition got worse.
“My biggest concern is that we made decisions based on the budget that was presented to us,” Gaarder said. “It has changed, and now we have to deal with the consequences. It has put us in a pickle.”
Gaarder and Superintendent Bob Fasbender proposed eliminating 3.5 positions. They would cut two guidance positions in half, cut a full-time aide at Tomah Middle School, cut a full-time bookkeeper in the district office and cut a half-time teacher at the Kupper Center.
“What we have on our side in this process is eliminating positions through attrition rather than layoffs,” Gaarder said. “I would much rather reach our targets through attrition.”
Gaarder said the budget outlook is just as grim for 2010-11, when the district could find itself over $1 million short. He said the “three-legged” stool that funded public education and kept property taxes in check is about to collapse. Of the three legs — two-thirds funding from the state, salary caps for teachers and local revenue limits — only revenue limits remain.
“The rules have changed,” Gaarder said. “This is uncharted territory for school districts in the state of Wisconsin.”
He criticized the state Legislature for passing its budget problems onto local school districts.
“They shifted the tax burden to the local property tax,” he said. “They’ve played a shell game and shifted those costs.”
Fasbender said a special meeting to discuss the budget may be necessary prior to the next regular meeting July 16. The board must have a budget ready for the Aug. 10 annual meeting. He described this year’s budget process as “the worst we’ve ever seen.”
The board also closed the books on the 2008-09 budget. Revenues exceeded expenditures by $166,000, and the district’s fund balance rose from $3.8 million to slightly over $4 million.
In other business, board members received their e-mail accounts from Technology Director Paul Potter and heard a presentation on network security.
Potter said the district has never been invaded by a computer virus because of restrictions the technology department puts on computer use.
“We’ve taken a very aggressive stance in locking our computers down,” Potter said. “There are tradeoffs. People can’t download software anytime they want.”
All stories copyright 2006 Tomah Journal and other attributed sources.