Legislative Fiscal Bureau Estimates Mirror RUSDs Budget Forecast

The proposed state budget would blast a $25 million hole in the Racine Unified School District's budget, a number confirmed in part by a nonpartisan service agency.

The Legislative Fiscal Bureau released reports yesterday that detailed how the proposed state budget would affect the school districts' budgets.

The estimates mirror what officials with the Racine Unified School District earlier this month, but there are still more details that need to be filled in to understand the full impact of the budget, district officials said.

"Our projections are still in the ballpark," said David Hazen, RUSD’s chief financial officer.

Earlier this month Hazen reported to Board members that Gov. Scott Walker’s proposed state education cuts could deliver a $25 million deficit to the district’s 2011-12 budget.

The impact of those cuts were among the worst in the state, he said.

According to the district’s calculations, RUSD stands to see cuts of $742 per pupil in state general education aid and other programs as outlined in the governor’s 2011-13 budget. This includes a $550 per pupil cut in general aid to all Wisconsin public schools plus cuts in programs that RUSD participates in aimed at helping at-risk students and to aid bilingual education.

The district negotiated enough cost savings through their unions that would plug most of that hole. By switching health insurance plans and adopting the other contract provisions, the district expects to save $19.2 million annually, or about $7,529 per full-time employee.

RUSD would also be impacted by the loss of state-related aid to students attending 21st Century Preparatory School, a pre-kindergarten through 8th grade school chartered by the University of Wisconsin-Parkside. Other things in the budget potentially affecting RUSD include lifting the current 480-student enrollment cap on 21st Century Prep and lifting a statewide cap on virtual schools.

The Legislative Fiscal Bureau report, released yesterday, outlined the current law and how the proposed budget would affect School Districts. However, the report only focused only on revenue limits and state aid.

Brian Lang, director of the Legislative Fiscal Bureau, emphasized that the numbers were estimates.

"It should be noted that this information is a static estimate of the effect of the proposed changes as if the changes had applied in 2010-11," he said. "If a district has increasing enrollment, the proposed changes would affect more pupils, and the effect would be greater than that shown in the attachment. Conversely, if a district has declining enrollment, the effect would be less.

"In addition, school districts would determine whether to levy to the maximum (property tax) allowed under the proposed per pupil adjustment, or low revenue ceiling, whichever would apply."

Other budget cuts outlined by the governor's proposal would negatively impact School District that counted on revenue limit adjustments for school safety, some transportation costs, and school nurse compensation costs, according to Lang.