30 state school districts seek more taxpayer funds

By Amy Hetzner - Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Amid one of the worst economic periods the country has seen in years, 30 Wisconsin school districts are poised to ask taxpayers to open their wallets wider.

The majority of the 43 referendum proposals on April 7 local ballots seek to allow the districts to exceed state-imposed revenue limits to finance current programs. Others, such as the $68.85 million building program proposed for the West Bend School District, request the ability to issue debt to pay for maintenance or new facilities.

But with the state of the economy, and the failures of all nine school referendum proposals on the Feb. 17 ballot, districts likely face a hard sell this year, observers say.

“They do need more revenue, and they’re going to the taxpayers to ask for it, but this is also the wrong time to do that,” said Michael Birkley, legislative director for Wisconsin Property Taxpayers. “With people being laid off all over the place, now is not the time to ask and to invest more in education.”

To West Bend Superintendent Patricia Herdrich, however, from a financial standpoint, now is the perfect time for her district's two-question building referendum.

Falling interest rates have lowered the projected tax impact of the referendum, and construction bids are likely to be favorable for the district, she said.

“Recognize that the board’s obligation is to advance the best recommendations to the community,” Herdrich said. “The community has to make the decision, so the community will decide the context for the best schools in West Bend.”

The West Bend district had postponed its referendum proposals, which initially were slated for the November ballot, because of concerns about how last fall’s financial news would affect voters.

The district should delay them again, West Bend resident Bart Williams said.

“I’m hearing from all my friends and neighbors, ‘Hey, I can’t afford this,’” he said. “That definitely trumps any trumpeting of low construction costs or bond debt or whatever.”

In addition, Williams said, the tax burden on residents is likely to grow even without the referendum’s passage. Gov. Jim Doyle’s budget proposal, which uses federal stimulus dollars to keep education funding at current levels, means property tax increases would be needed to pay for any increases in spending next school year.

Even so, some argue that now is not the time to back off from investing in education.

Mary Kay Waldman, a parent working with a pro-referendum committee in the Maple Dale–Indian Hill School District, said she worried about how the economy might affect people’s attitudes toward her district’s two-question referendum.

But, she said, once she has a chance to explain the district’s requests to raise annual operating revenue by $800,000 for the next decade and tackle $4 million in building improvements, people have been more favorable.

“We see it as a personal value for a homeowner,” Waldman said. “To keep their property value up, they need to have a good school district.”

Referenda being decided in Northeast Wisconsin include, besides the two referenda totaling $68.85 million in West Bend, three referenda totaling $16.8 million in Oshkosh, three referenda totaling $10.315 million in Reedsville, three referenda totaling $1.575 million in Ripon, a $650,000 referendum in Kiel, a $600,000 referendum in Manawa, a $300,000 referendum in Horicon, a $250,000 referendum in Bowler, and a $75,000 referendum in Herman.

Historically, building referendums have a better success rate than referendums seeking to exceed revenue caps. And, of the revenue-cap referendums, those that are limited to a certain period do better than those without limits, said Todd Berry, president of the Wisconsin Taxpayers Alliance.

That’s likely to hold true this year, though Berry said he expects below-average success for each type of referendum because of the economy.

Berry sees the effect in his own Middleton–Cross Plains School District, which is seeking a permanent $550,000 increase in revenue limits on top of $68.73 million for building improvements.

District voters have proven willing to approve large increases in spending that they believe are deserved and turn down those they do not think are needed, he said.

“Some people are saying this is not a good time to be asking for $70 million,” Berry said. “So even there, in a district that tends to be pretty discerning … the economic conditions seem to be mentioned a little bit more.”