This Year's School Spending Cuts Not Likely to be Deepest

The Top 10 GRP-Funded Programs, 2009-11 biennium

Source:  Wisconsin Legislative Fiscal Bureau

What happens when the Walker administration, as it was phrased by another gubernatorial candidate, puts Madison on a diet?  All of us tighten our belts.

Link to December 19 Oshkosh Northwestern article, "More schools choosing deeper cuts over tax increases"

[Not so in the Middleton-Cross Plains School District.  Our share increased from $1,871 in 2009 to $2,056.41 in 2010, an increase of 10%.  The tax bills were sent out 2 days ago, so it will be interesting to read the letters to the editors in next Wednesday's Middleton Times-Tribune.  In order to do so online, I have to pay for the privilege.  Fortunately, the library is just a short walk from home.]

Excerpt:  The number of school districts absorbing deeper-than-required spending cuts jumped for the second year in a row, suggesting a growing attitude change towards spending limits in the midst of financial turmoil.

The state of Wisconsin caps how much revenue districts can generate, and educators have routinely criticized the limits for not keeping pace with rising costs.

But more than one in four districts – including Oshkosh and several others in the area – chose to tax below their caps this year despite the budget squeeze. The Wisconsin Taxpayers Alliance, an independent research group, reports that 120 out of 425 school districts did not tax to their revenue limit in 2010-11.

That practice started to accelerate last school year when the state cut its share of school funding for the first time ever. Local property taxpayers were left to decide whether to make up the difference, and 98 districts in 2009-10 chose not to maximize their tax levies in order to shield homeowners from double-digit increases during an economic recession.