The South Milwaukee School Board has passed the district’s preliminary 2011-12 budget … with most of the cuts proposed earlier this month intact.
Check out the final list of budget assumptions here.
You will note that the pool is now off the chopping block, as well proposals to reduce an instrumental music position and reduce police liaison services.
The budget, passed at the district’s March 23 meeting, also assumes the “budget repair bill” officially goes into effect at some point – and its mandated health insurance and pension contributions.
It also assumes a more than $1.8 million decrease in revenue due to the revenue caps proposed in Gov. Scott Walker’s budget.
So, what’s next? Good question.
There are still a number of moving pieces, including efforts to negotiate union contracts for 2011-12 to better take advantage of the so-called “tools” in the budget repair bill, Superintendent Rita Olson tells me.
You’ll recall that the unions ratified 2009-11 contracts less than a month ago.
And the budget won’t truly be final until the district’s annual meeting in September, when the tax levy is formally passed. So stay tuned.
South Milwaukee Blog 
so how much are my taxes going up?
Good question. I’ll ask about tax rates.
Erik, don’t you as our alderman, and a liaison of sorts to the school, ask these questions? If not, why not?
It’s been my understanding that the tax rate is not truly set until a meeting in September, so I didn’t ask. I honestly don’t know if the preliminary budget they approved at this point includes that information. But that’s why I am following up. Also, I always try to deliver the whole story on the blog, but in some ways I am reliant on what’s provided to me and readily available, especially when it comes to the school district and other areas outside City Hall. It’s a time thing … and I do my best.
Thanks to Blaise Paul from the school district for getting back to me so quickly with an answer on this. Here it is …
“Currently there is so much uncertainty that we do not know how taxes will be impacted. What we just finished doing was comparing the projected revenue change with the projected expenditure change. The result of this was a deficit that was the focal point of the past two months. The next step assuming that our assumptions in the budget process were correct, (which is a huge unknown since Madison is in a state of flux), is to determine the make up of the allowable revenue. This will not be able to be determined until we have a settled state budget. The state budget will determine the total funding that will be allocated to k-12 education. From there the funding is put through an equalization formula that will determine the amount each District will receive. Generally speaking, from there we will take our revenue limit (also subject to the state budget) and subtract the state aid which will result in our tax levy. Due to the unknowns that exist and the great level of extremes I will not put out an estimate on taxes because it would not be accurate. There are many pieces to the puzzle and right now we do not have any of them. Typically tax projections are not given until August. This is due to the fact that equalization aid is based on your prior year expenditures as well as needing a state budget that has a clear direction.”