Board of Education Meeting Review:
The agenda item concerning the secession petition involved some back and forth amongst board members. Mr. Warnimont pointed out that the Board was already on record with its action of September 24, 2007 to the effect that the secession petition would go forward. There was some discussion as to which district would be preferable to MATC. Mr. Bowe indicated that his position favoring WCTC would probably change given new information he had developed. Among the reasons was the indication that fire fighters seemed to favor the program offered by MPTC over that offered by WCTC. Mr. Warnimont indicated that he remained in favor of WCTC based on his analysis.
The long and the short of this discussion and the ensuing vote is this: The Board will have the petition in its hands by the meeting on September 8th, will make its final decision on desired district and will proceed with the filing prior to the deadline established by the Technical College System.
There was some consternation amongst Board members that they were being castigated in the press for having delayed this process. It was pointed out that, given the Technical College System process, filing last year or filing this year prior to the deadline would have no effect on the actual date the secession could occur if approved. The date of such a change, if approved, is set forth and is inflexible.
Discussion concerning the building referendum issue included a review of the findings from the recent survey. There were 11,647 pieces mailed to district homes, and a response rate of some 15% had been logged. This was felt to be a good return at a total cost of $4,200. The results seemed to echo the election results in terms of the number in favor and the number opposed.
Mr. Warnimont indicated that recent reviews of the cost changes since the referendum was defeated showed an overall increase of about 20% if no changes were made to the plan as presented earlier. This increase was caused by the general increase in prices being felt in most sectors of the economy.
If I had to guess as to what direction the Board will take regarding the referendum, I would expect that we'll not see the question on the ballot again until possibly in the spring of 2009. I would also expect that the proposal for the elementary building will have been revised.
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Tax Knowledge Test Answers:
Remember that the questions asked for a true or false answer.
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Property taxes pay for most of the costs of the K-12 public schools in Wisconsin.
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False. The most recent data we have available states that in 2004-05, gross property taxes paid for 38% of school districts' budgets in Wisconsin. During that same period, inter-governmental aid paid for 56% of school districts' budgets. The public opinion survey showed that 65% of survey respondents believed that property taxes fund the majority of costs for public K-12 education.
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Wisconsin taxpayers pay more of their personal income toward state and local taxes today than they did 10 years ago.
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False. In 1994, the Wisconsin tax burden as a percent of personal income was 13.5%. The most recent data available is for 2006; that year, Wisconsin taxpayers paid 11.6% of their income in taxes. The public opinion survey found that 78% of respondents believed the statement was true.
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Wisconsin collects more money from sales taxes than it does from gasoline taxes and corporate taxes combined.
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True. In 2007, sales tax accounted for 19% of all state and local taxes collected. Corporate and gasoline taxes accounted for a total of 9% combined. The public opinion survey found that only 26% of respondents believed the statement was true, while 35% believed the statement was false.
(This courtesy of The Wisconsin Way.)
