Wednesday, August 1, 2012

Fitzwalkerstan Taxpayers Are About To Get Schooled

Remember how Scott Walker, as well as the Americans for Poverty and MacGuyver Institute kept insisting that the Walker plan was working in regards to education? Remember how they said that the schools were basically about the same or better before he cut nearly a billion dollars from the education budget? Remember how they said Walker did all of that without raising taxes?

Well, we warned the taxpayers time and time again that this was not true and Walker and the Koch-funded propagandists couldn't be believed.

As we all know, the voters didn't listen to us. And now they are going to pay for their foolishness in reelecting Walker, and pay dearly:
The Shawano School District tax levy would jump by more than 12 percent next year under the district's proposed budget as local taxpayers take up the slack for state funding cuts.

"For the first time ever in this school district, the tax levy is higher than state aid," district Business Manager Gail Moesch said.

The budget to be presented to taxpayers at the Aug. 20 annual meeting calls for property owners to pay nearly $13.4 million to fund the 2012-2013 school year; an increase of $1.48 million, or 12.43 percent, over this year's tax levy.

Meanwhile, the district is estimating state aid of just over $12 million; a decrease of $1.8 million, or 13 percent. Federal aid is also going down by 9 percent.

"It's a huge shift from state support to local support," Superintendent Todd Carlson said.
The article reports that this comes to be almost $100 for a $100,000 home. And it could have been much worse if the school board hadn't taken other actions as well:
The district has planned nearly $255,000 in spending cuts, with a general fund for next school year budgeted at $25.9 million compared to this year's $26.17 million.

The district sought to offset the impact on taxpayers by reducing the debt retirement portion of the levy.

The district will also use $500,000 from this year's budget surplus to help lower the debt retirement, which will drop from $2.9 million this year to $2.4 million next year.

The district had a $931,000 surplus in its general fund budget this year, thanks mostly to health insurance savings, and spent less than expected on heat, pupil travel and Special Education transfers, according to Moesch. The rest of the surplus has been designated for the district's self-funded health insurance program and future capital projects.
Maybe this is why the right wingers have been so quiet lately. They're starting to finally realize that they've been sold a bill of goods we can't afford to pay by the biggest snake oil salesman to ever live.

Just don't say we didn't warn you.

34 comments:

  1. It is sad that this current legislative group has chosen to ruin public education in our state.

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  2. Isn't Shawano (county) in the bottom of the county list when it comes to wealth?


    At least they have the AWESOME lake up there.

    Hey, did you catch the DoC "common sense solutions" news blurb that the "official" Government released?

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  3. This shortfall would be even worse if we still had collective bargaining. And if state and federal aid were increased that just raises taxes from another source. I don't
    understand how Kathleen Falk would have saved them from a budget crunch.
    I guess they wont have Ipads for every teacher this year.

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    1. Well, the state didn't have to be cut in the first place, so Walker's deficit was artificially constructed. Collective bargaining had nothing to do with this one. It's strictly Walker passing the tax hike onto the local government, just like the way he passed the county tax bill onto the municipalities.

      I think that IMBAR should volunteer to pay for Walker's tax hikes since he's such a big supporter.

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    2. Sadly, IMBAR keeps doling out the B.S. that they have been told to, while drinking.....come on everyone, say it with me....THE KOOL-AID!!!

      What I always find hilarious when schooling these Walker tools on facts, is that they always come back with "if" statements. Having done computer programming, I can tell "if" statements are only used in the event the "if" situation occurs. It doesn't mean they always do, and it doesn't mean it ever could. We just programmed them in just in case.

      Funny how the Typublicrites always live in the "what if" world to protect and follow their idiotic puppet masters, yet when it comes to something like climate change, they not only pooh-pooh the evidence, they also don't even try to use the "what if" in regards to it being true. Hence, this is why they are Typublicrites.

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    3. IMBR not sure how having collective bargaining where the teachers could actually bargain such things as if they can have coffee in their rooms or if they can wear a Packer sweatshirt on fridays would have closed the budget.


      I do agree with you that the money has to come from somewhere, the whole point is though, walker took the state money away(while dictating everything else to the local districts) and forced the local communities to pay. Then had the nerve to say he cut taxes.

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    4. And let me guess, the state didn't have a 6 billion dollar stuctural deficit to overcome when Walker wrote his budget. Right?

      I didn't hear how Kathleen would have helped this? Capper, its your theory that the state has plenty of money and can pay more without raising taxes? should they raid the doctors patient fund again? Not pay their dues to Minnesota? maybe borrow from the pension fund? Seems I've seen all these fixes before. Its nice to see someone making real choices.

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    5. We didnt have a 6 billion dollar structrual deficit. We were so broke that we handed out 2.2 billion in tax cuts to his top donors before he attacked public workers

      What has happened in the last year has nothing to do with "real choices"

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    6. How's that nice black van?

      Hey, anyone notice how many G4S uniformed people are active around the state lately?

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    7. break out the abacus racist.who needs computers anyway.my doctor still makes housecalls and will take eggs in lieu of payment.

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    8. Actually, the number was supposedly $3 billion, and when one uses the same accounting system he did to get that number, it shows he raised the hole by $100,000.

      Kathleen would have just reversed the artificial constructs that Walker put in place to create the false deficit and we would have been halfway to that 125000 jobs by now.

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  4. All of the school district short falls are going to be the first steps to cut all of the pension benefits. There will be no more contribution to WRS and the insurance is going to change again.

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  5. Well then the school boards need to be cutting more from the budget. Have employees pay more for their benefits, have kids pay bigger fees to play sports, out source janitorial to non union companies. Outsource ground to non union companies, there are plenty of ways to bring the budget in line.

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    1. Why not start cutting all the benefits of the non-union positions? In my home town, all of the administrators get the following in addition to their big salaries. And these are all funded by the school district: Cell phones, laptops, and internet.

      How about that Anony Mouse?

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    2. They may have to. The beauty of the new law is that they cannot just stick it to the property tax bill.

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    3. The beauty of our new tax law is that Walker just made a lot of stuff a "fee" now.

      You still pay IMBR, only we call it something else now so you don't have to pay taxes.

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    4. 1. Because of the screwed-up way school funding is figured, if the school saves money by charging a fee, they get even less in state revenue the next year. So it's a lose-lose for the school and the parents who have to shell out more cash.
      2. Most school districts outsourced their janitorial/ maintenance/ groundskeeping/food service years ago. The food service manager in my district makes almost twice my salary and I'm a 15 year veteran teacher with almost a Master's degree. And the maintenance manager also makes almost $10,000 more than I do. So that's not really going to work.

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    5. i would eliminate the football program to save money.and make all republican parents kids pay more in activities.

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  6. By making all your school aid tied to local property taxes, poorer areas get poorly-maintained schools, starved for operating expenses like paying for teachers and books, etc.
    This was the favored means of discrimination used in such backwoods hellholes like Mississippi and throughout the Jim Crow-era Confederate South.

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  7. If I were a cop or firefighter, I'd be getting somewhat nervous right around now.

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    Replies
    1. Nah, Scotty has their backs.
      Real public servants should trust that it will all be moving forward just as soon as the temporary funding crisis is over. The budget is fixed.
      (Scott Russell and Brain Pierick have their backs too.)

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    2. Cops and fire fighters are overpaid anyway.

      They shouldn't have any say, this is a TOP-DOWN world.

      Sure, communities will be weakened by good people in either case, but at least the wealthy can have their private security forces.

      Why should there be that police and fire protection for everyone, and equally footed, Mr. IMBR? It's only for those who can afford it, isn't it?

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  8. By Walker shifting the aid source to localities, he is also letting elected local boards fight among themselves for solutions under constrained budgets.
    Scott Walker manufactured this local crisis: this is his method of operation.
    Recently elected boards have taken on a more conservative, Tea Party-like character, which has served to create proposals to privatize things (this "saves" money). With education, voucher/school choice schemes are brought into play.
    Our state tax dollars are being used to privatize as many aspects of government as possible, and these private outfits are accountable to their shareholders--not the public at large who pays the taxes.

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  9. Shawano hasn't been one of the state's top-rated districts over the years, has it, when it comes to quality of education?

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  10. If they're increasing the school tax levy 12%, doesn't that mean they will have to cut some other local services like firefighters, EMTs, garbage, road repair, etc.) to make up the difference since Walker has prohibited local governments from raising property taxes? I guess it depends on what percent of the total property tax levy the 12% school tax levy is.

    The problem with people like IMBR is that they think there is enough "fraud and waste" to put a dent in local, state, and federal budgets. But that's a fallacy.

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  11. So you eliminate cell phones, laptops, and internet... and you've saved what, .0003% of the budget?

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    1. Good point IMBR i was getting worried that our kids might learn modern technology.....

      ABAcus's for everyone!

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    2. Good one, Imightbearedneck

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  12. Why do you continue to tolerate IMBR? He is a Walker tool and a mental pigmy.

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    1. It is not that difficult to look past IMBR's leavings. I have the addon that automatically replaces IMBR's avatar with goatse.

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  13. Way to be tolerant of other opinions. Kind of what I expect from an anonymous comment. If you are the result of public education maybe a complete reset isn't a bad idea.

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    1. After being exposed to your 'logic' and 'analysis', I conclude you may be the result of hom Skulin.

      BTW I treat people spouting nonsense and wasting my time the same way in real life. There are plenty of people here that respond and refute you. Apparently no one else has referenced goatse with respect to your comments, which I have already done. Did you google yet?

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  14. All of this is part of the larger plan to end public education, which is just a facet of creating an uneducated worker class through human farming techniques.

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  15. And...the average teacher makes a lot more in Shawano than the average Shawano taxpayer. The average taxpayer in Shawano makes about $28,000 per year. Take a look at the the top 20 school employees in Shawano...the average of all their benefits is $77,000...wow. You are all crying and making up crazy stories about how Act 10 is some kind of Soylent Green project...you people watch too many movies. This is all about getting SPENDING under control. You have NOT been good stewards of the taxpayers money. I sure would love to get the current benefits package the current teachers have!!!

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