Proper budgeting means residents still face no-increase tax levy
By Ed Nadolski
Editor in Chief
The release Monday of actual figures of state aid to local school districts will have negligible impact on the Burlington Area School District thanks mainly to BASD’s plan to prepare for the worst.
“When you plan for the worst and it comes in better than that it’s good news,” Superintendent Peter Smet said.
The bottom line for district taxpayers: there will still be a zero-increase tax levy to support the budget, but BASD will use less of its fund balance to attain that goal.
The local school district – along with the 423 other public school districts in the state – were notified of their state aid numbers Monday.
Burlington is slated to receive $14.5 million in state aid for the 2012-13 school year, which is about $1.6 million less than it received last year – a decrease of nearly 10 percent.
Burlington isn’t alone in that regard. Of the state’s 424 districts, 272, or 64 percent, will receive less aid for this year.
Smet said BASD officials were well aware that state aid would decline, so they initially budgeted for a “worst case scenario” that called for a 15 percent reduction in aid.
That number was adjusted to a 10.62 percent aid loss following updated estimates from the state Department of Public Instruction in July, Smet said. That’s when the School Board established its goal of a no-increase tax levy, using money from its fund balance to close the gap between revenue and expenses.
“We budgeted accordingly, Smet said.
The final aid figure represents a 9.92 percent aid decrease, which is an $800,000 difference from the district’s worst-case scenario of 15 percent.
According to a press release issued by the DPI Monday, general aid amounts to districts are based on audited school district data from the 2011-12 school year, which include membership, shared costs, and property value. School membership – which is not the same as enrollment – declined by more than 1,900 full-time equivalent students over last school year.
Property valuations range from $9.03 million per pupil to $186,900 per pupil, a ratio of 47:1 between the most and least property wealthy districts in the state.
According to the DPI, State Superintendent Tony Evers plans to reintroduce his school funding reform proposal in November in an effort to address property wealth disparities and other school finance issues to guarantee more equitable funding for students regardless of where then live.
-
-
-
-
-