It's a tax INCREASE
The Janesville School Board has increased the property tax burden property owners in the district must pay. The board did not hike taxes as much as the administration recommended, but a tax increase is what it is, regardless of what was earlier recommended.
The Janesville Gazette's front page headline read - "Board cuts levy increase." The Gazette's website story was headlined - "Board cuts proposed spending to help taxpayers."
WCLO radio put it this way on its website - "School board reduces tax levy increase."
Those headlines are all correct, although one could argue that words such as "cuts" and "reduces" should mean good news when describing property taxes. Unfortunately, that's not the case with the board's recent decision.
The board increased the property tax burden by 3.7 percent. In short, property taxes to support Janesville schools are up, and school spending is also up.
The board trimmed the increase recommended by the administration. Hopefully the commissioners will not boast that they "cut" taxes based on what the administration recommended. The administration's recommendation is merely that - a recommendation. It's action by the school board that counts, and the commissioners increased property taxes.
That's not to say that the increase can't be justified, but the commissioners (all eight of them) need to be clear on their action - they increased property taxes and spending.
Oct 3, 2008 at 9:20 a.m.
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Stan, I just ran across this blog. Very simply stated the district will have guaranteed tax increases every year given how the revenue cap works. Now trying to say it is simple is "oxymoronic" because of all the other levels of aid.
If revenue caps are adjusted 2.75%, which is close to what is historic, and costs of salaries and benefits go up over 4%, which they have the last ten years, then you will have an automatic tax increase which will cause adjustments in other areas to eliminate the gap between the revenue increase and the cost increase.
Pretty simple isn't it?
Aug 28, 2008 at 10:23 a.m.
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Stan: You are correct. It drives me nuts when a government agency spends $100.00 dollars last year, was planning on spending $110.00 this year but spends $105.00 instead. It will be advertised as a cut of $5.00 rather than an increase of $5.00. That is the "new math" of government.
As to the school budget, with the "cuts" that were made and savings from the insurance plan, actual spending is only up about .5% from last year.
The reason the levy will be a 3.7% increase is due to the referendum, which I believe YOU fully supported.
As you recall, I was for a much smaller plan that remodeled the schools but did not enlarge them. Rather than having 2 new high school gymns (aka fieldhouses) we would instead have built one facility (perhaps downtown) that would have been used for all types of civic and school events.
If overcrowding at the high schools was still an issue, my proposal was to shift our classes around so that high school would be grades 10-12, middle school grades 7-9 and elementary schools K-6.
Unfortunately with the plant closing, overcrowding might not have been an issue.
Thanks for the service that you perform.
Bill Sodemann
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