Shawano School District residents will be asked to approve a $26.7 million budget at the district’s annual meeting Monday.
The meeting is expected to be less tense than the 2012 annual meeting, when the budget included a sharp increase in the tax rate, from $8.98 to $9.95 per $1,000 of equalized valuation. This year, the district plans to keep the tax rate flat.
Effects on individual property owners won’t be known until the 2013 property values are released. The district received a nasty surprise when the 2012 figures showed property values had dropped 3.52 percent, and expenses had to be cut in order to keep from increasing the tax rate to $10.51 per $1,000 of equalized valuation.
The annual report from the Wisconsin Department of Revenue released Thursday shows the city’s equalized valuation is flat, while values in Richmond, Waukechon and Washington went up, and Belle Plaine, Herman and Wescott’s values dropped.
Wescott saw the largest drop, 7 percent, from $372,447,400 to $345,645,800.
Specific school district property valuations will not be available until Oct. 15.
There have been some suggestions made in the community that the school district should tap into its fund balance, which was about $6.95 million as of June 30, to reduce the tax levy. According to Business Manager Gail Moesch, that is not possible. Although the money is listed in the fund balance, it includes any outstanding tax payments or state aid, which the district does not receive until after the end of the fiscal year, she said.
Much of the fund balance goes to keep the district operating until it receives its state aid and property tax payments, she said.
“We used $900,000 from the fund balance for the addition we’re doing right now (at Shawano Community High School),” Moesch said. “We also have some money for the health insurance.”
The district self-funds its insurance program, and about $1.1 million is earmarked for that purpose.
The district will not see 2014 property tax payments until next January, and state aid payments will not start rolling in until September. In the interim, the fund balance has to pay for school operations, Moesch said.
“Financial statements are a snapshot of one day,” she said. “Because you have to recognize some things, and you don’t have them yet, that really throws some things off.”
The Department of Public Instruction encourages school districts to maintain fund balances of 20 to 30 percent of the yearly budget. Moesch said the existing fund balance is about 22 percent of the budget.
Superintendent Todd Carlson said it was very important to administrators to keep the tax rate flat for 2014. He said they recognized how hard it was for property owners to absorb the 2013 rate increase.
“We’ve got to be conscious of the economy in our community,” Carlson said. “We actually have a smaller budget coming in this year than last year” not including the $900,000 for the technical education and agriculture classroom expansion at SCHS.
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