By Tracy Ouellette
SLN Staff
The East Troy School Board decided against going to the polls in April for an operational referendum to help School District bridge the gap between its revenue limit and budget shortfall.
While none of the School Board members said liked the idea of making even more cuts after 10 straight years of cuts totaling $6.3 million, the concern was the board didn’t have enough time between now and the spring election to properly inform the public why the referendum was needed.
“Do we hurry up and do it wrong, or wait to do it right?” board member Steve Lambrechts asked at Monday night’s meeting. “I hate to wait, but I don’t want to get it wrong.”
The board was considering a three-year, non-recurring $1.4 million operational referendum to provide assistance on much needed maintenance projects and to address about half of the annual structural deficit in the budget. The referendum would have cost taxpayers about $92 a year on $100,000 of property value.
The board decided to go to referendum in 2020 and spend the next 14 months getting the word out as to why the School District needs the money, starting with forming an ad hoc committee to lead the charge.
For the full story, see this week’s edition of the East Troy Times/News
