School Board Cuts 2008 Mill Rate

This is great news on top of the city's vote to freeze the mill rate in 2009:

For the fifth time in seven years the Ripon Board of Education has cut the equalized mill rate for property taxes that support school operations. At its October 27 meeting the Board approved a $22.9 million budget for the 2008-09 school year that includes an equalized mill rate of $9.20 for tax bills that will be distributed in December. This is a decrease of 6 cents in the equalized mill rate from last year and a drop of $2.64 cents in the past seven years. Actual local tax bill mill rates are subsequently converted to assessed valuations and will differ in each of the eleven municipalities that are part of the school district.
Wisconsin’s school funding law contains revenue limit provisions that restrict school boards from raising budgets by more than a rate determined by inflation and the district’s school-aged population. After the budget is determined, the amount of state aid for property tax relief is calculated with a formula that estimates the equalized value of property per student in each of the state’s 426 school districts. This calculation is considered a measure of the relative wealth of the district’s population and its need for state aid to ensure that all students in Wisconsin receive a comparable educational opportunity. Ripon’s state aid for 2008-09 is 67% of the operating budget.
Ripon’s revenue limit for the 2008-09 budget is a 2.9% increase at a time when costs are exceeding that amount. The majority of the district’s budget is for wages and benefits, and another state law mandates that teachers receive a compensation increase of no less than 3.8% each year. This disparity in the budget laws has caused the Ripon Area School District to cut $328,000 from last year’s budget and an additional $342,000 from the current school year budget. The amount that is necessary to cut from next year’s budget to meet the law’s provisions is still being calculated. Public listening sessions will be announced for November and December for receiving community input into budget planning for 2009-10.