Governor’s proposal would nearly double WUSD’s cuts
By Chris Bennett
Correspondent
The Whitewater Unified School District will need to account for roughly a $290,000 budget shortfall if Governor Scott Walker’s proposed two-year budget is approved.
Administrators and business personnel from the Fort Atkinson, Jefferson and Whitewater school districts presided over a press conference Feb. 5 at the district office in Fort Atkinson to address the issue.
Gov. Walker unveiled his state budget on Feb. 3. The proposed budget of roughly $68 billion calls for a $150 per pupil reduction in categorical state aid.
According to information on the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction web site, categorical aid is state or federal aid that is intended to finance or reimburse some specific category or instructional or supporting program, or to aid a particular target group of pupils.
The loss is especially acute for WUSD. Voters approved a referendum in November 2014 that allowed the district to exceed revenue caps by $1.2 million per year in each of the next four years.
WUSD District Administrator Eric Runez said a promise to cut roughly $300,000 in spending per year in each of the next four years accompanied the referendum.
“Based off of this proposed budget from the governor, that doubles what we would have to make in reductions,” Runez said.
Runez said the language regarding the categorical aid led WUSD staff to believe the money would be in the budget indefinitely.
“We had every reason to believe that categorical aid would stay in place,” Runez said. “We made it a priority to put it in our budget, assuming it would be there.”
Because the WUSD revenue limit is frozen by the state, Runez said there is no way to accommodate for the shortfall through property tax assessments. Runez said cuts to staff and/or programs will likely be in play if the budget passes as is.
“From the district’s perspective, we felt we could make the reductions realistic to the referendum and keep the district intact,” Runez said. “If the governor’s budget were to be passed, we would not be able to deliver on the promise of keeping the district intact.”
Runez also said the district used conservative budget numbers when projecting what to ask for in the referendum. The district budgeted for revenue staying flat.
WUSD Director of Business Services Nate Jaeger pointed out that revenue limits for 2016-17 are projected to be lower than in 2009, which Jaeger said “is approaching a decade of nothing” regarding the district’s ability to increase revenue and meet rising costs.
According to the Wisconsin Budget Project, the state budget needs to be approved by both houses of the Legislature before becoming law. The budget will go through legislative committees and public hearings yet this spring and be considered by the Assembly and Senate in late spring and early summer.
The governor will review the budget once it is passed by the legislature, make any vetoes and sign the budget into law sometime this summer.
