Concerns about revenue shortfall in New London
By Scott Bellile
New London School Board members wish to meet with lawmakers to discuss how the state’s revenue limits are hurting the district’s finances.
The board on March 13 voted unanimously to invite state Rep. Kevin Petersen, R-Waupaca, and state Sen. Joan Ballweg, R-Markesan, to visit the district to discuss the state funding disparity.
The pair in February came to City Hall to discuss municipal funding with city officials. According to school board members, they offered to return to visit the school district.
The board’s invitation resulted from a 2023 fiscal year budget update presented by Business Services Director Joe Marquardt.
He told the board the district is slated to have a “favorable” $250,000 surplus, which could be applied toward reducing borrowing for the $2 million renovation of Sugar Bush Elementary School.
However, Marquardt projected a shortfall for New London next fiscal year due to the state having frozen its revenue limit of $10,000 per student from 2021-23.
“A two-year freeze to anyone’s revenue budget does create sustainability challenges, especially with the cost of increases that do go up inside your budget,” Marquardt said, referring to inflation.
Low enrollment school districts
New London is among Wisconsin’s 124 lowest-enrollment school districts that are capped at the minimum aid of $10,000 per student per year. This pertains to revenue derived from two sources: general state aid and local property taxes.
“Just imagine if you had your own business, and [the state] says, ‘You’re selling a product, and the maximum you could earn for that product is ‘X’ in one year. You can’t go past there,’” Marquardt said. “That’s where our revenue limit is.”
DPI proposes raising revenue caps
The Department of Public Instruction has proposed raising the low-revenue limit ceiling to $10,350 in the 2024 fiscal year and to $11,000 in 2025.
District Administrator Scott Bleck said these amounts would not offset higher expenses incurred due to inflation.
Board Treasurer Mark Grossman said school board members statewide discussed a minimum revenue limit of $11,500 is needed at the annual Wisconsin Association of School Boards convention.
The current revenue limits, calculated using an enrollment-based formula in place since 1993, have put the smallest school districts in an unfair position for three decades as operating costs like utilities climb, Director Terry Wegner said.
“Kudos to the boards that have sat here and the people that have run the district over those times because to manage under those circumstances for 30 years and still be a very viable district is credit to them,” Wegner said of New London. “I give zero credit to Madison.
“I heard Mr. Petersen comment that, ‘Well, if we changed the formula, there’d be winners and losers,’” Wegner said. “We’ve been a loser for 20 years. I’d kind of like to be a winner for a while, just to see what it might be like, but apparently [legislators] don’t have that fortitude to make that decision.”
Bleck asked if any board members wish to represent New London at an upcoming legislative breakfast where multiple districts group up and visit with their state lawmakers’ offices for up to 20 minutes.
Nobody volunteered. Wegner said he did not feel heard during previous trips, while Grossman said New London could find itself competing with a room full of other schools for limited time.
Vice President John Heideman asked how to broach the revenue disparity with “less kid gloves” than a legislative breakfast, such as forming a consortium among the lowest-enrollment districts to publicly demand equity in school financing.
“We’re just asking to be fair and pay us all the same,” Heideman said.
In addition to approving invitations to Petersen and Ballweg, the board will consider drafting a resolution voicing the board’s dissatisfaction with current revenue limits at a future meeting and sharing it with other small districts.