We should know more Tuesday about the scope of cuts South Milwaukee will face with in coming months, as Gov. Scott Walker delivers his budget address.
It surely won’t be pretty, as we prepare for a significant cut in shared revenue from the state.
As you can see in our 2011 budget, shared revenue is a significant line item for us. We were projecting more than $3.1 million in these types of revenuves this year, the same as our 2010 budgeted amount, but more than $100,000 less than what we received in 2009.
So even a 10 percent cut in this line item is significant — potentially more than a $300,000 hit to a budget that is already fat-free. At this point, any additional cuts are almost certainly going to mean a reduction in services … and that’s a sobering thought.
I’ll keep you posted as we begin to navigate through this.
South Milwaukee Blog 
Cudahy School district is also looking at $2 million in cuts, as are many other districts in our area. Please be sure to report that this is a state-wide challenge. Especially for school districts north of Hwy 8.
Again, why does it ALWAYS mean a reduction in services? When the overwhelming budget expenditure is teacher’s pay and benefits why is there NEVER any sacrifice there?
Here we are, middle and working class families, fighting for scraps while untold millions (billions?) are taken out of the state budget in corporate tax cuts and subsidies based on the rationale that a “business friendly climate” will lead to economic growth. A significant percentage of businesses in Wisconsin already pay no state taxes (including some of the largest banks), yet we see no appreciable affect on unemployment and the economic picture in Wisconsin still looks rather bleak (not like that of corporations pocketing record profits). The case has been made in public discourse that the tax cuts and subsidies are will help small businesses, but the flat corporate tax rate in Wisconsin leaves small business carrying a greater “tax burden” than their larger counterparts.
The current conversation in Wisconsin (and nationally) is focused entirely on cuts and how to do less with less, but cutting is only one option…raising revenue needs to at least be a mention in the conversation…especially since thus far the corporate community has not held up its end of the “tax cut” bargain by creating jobs. (I’m not holding my breath for a spike in job creation in light of the latest round of “job creation” tax credits as companies can offset job creation with job elimination and still pocket the tax benie.)
Not part of the conversation thus far are the 40 categories of property tax exemptions that (like their corporate counterparts) are afforded the services of police and fire protection, look to public schools to develop an educated workforce, and unabashedly benefit from the public services for which they pay nothing…that means we’re picking up the tab for them.
With the South Milwaukee school district having already faced over $7 million in cuts over the past six years, you’re right the fat is gone…and then some. I’m left wondering how long the working and middle classes are going to settle for crumbs while corporations are allowed to keep gorging themselves.
Maybe now the Administration is going to have to take some cuts in their benefits. My neighbor is a professor in the UW system, which will be losing a lot, and he supports Walkers cuts. These are long over due. I have to wonder how the State of Tennessee does it, they have no personal income tax, property taxes are less than 1/4 of what we pay, and they have new schools and their garbage gets picked up. Yes, they do have a state sales tax of 9%, but overall their revenue is much lower than WI.
On a number of rankings, apparently…graduate rate, child welfare rating, per pupil computer/Internet access, etc….Wisconsin falls in the upper 25% of states and Tennessee falls in the lower half, sometimes the lower 25% (The State of Kentucky put together this set of metrics – http://www.lrc.ky.gov/lrcpubs/RR345.pdf). It looks like as of this report, Wisconsin teacher salaries were on the decline (and only @$2000 more on average than teacher salaries in Tennessee at the point data was collected for this report). Since educational systems move slowly, changes in funding appear over time (Prop 13 in California is perhaps a case in point) and Tennessee has apparently funded education at less than the national average for some time (and might be an explanation for their rankings). Though the situation is complex and different reports pull data from different sources making it hard it compare apples and apples, it kinda looks like Tennessee’s rankings might be our future.
I’ve heard that Tennessee (and several other Southern states) provides little in public services, and the poor and disabled are referred to federal programs…and that for some services fees are collected so people still pay, but the contributions don’t show up in taxation statistics, but I don’t have direct info about the degree to which these things may be the case.