Green Bay Area Public School District building. (IMAGE: Courtesy of Fox 11 WLUK)
GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) — Members of the public will have two chances this month to hear more about the Green Bay school budget for the next year.
The $312.9 million budget includes a projected $3.6 million deficit.
At 5 p.m. Oct. 13, the school board is holding its monthly work session, with the budget presented by chief financial officer Angie Roble.
At 5:30 p.m. Oct. 27, the board is holding a public hearing. Immediately afterward, the board is expected to vote on the budget and tax levy.
Both meetings are scheduled to be held at the district office building, 200 S. Broadway. Meetings are also streamed on the district’s YouTube channel.
The deficit comes “(d)espite continued efforts to decrease spending by reducing staffing through attrition, department budget cuts, and the consolidation of three schools thus far,” Roble said in a news release.
“The District’s budget is a reflection of not receiving inflationary increases year over year from the state to help offset the rapidly increasing costs to do business (fuel, utilities, consumables, health insurance, etc.). While the $325 per pupil increase was helpful to reduce the District’s proposed budget deficit, it fell short of a cost of inflation increase.”
The proposed budget presents a mixed bag for tax rates. The district plans to charge property owners $7.38 per $1,000 of value. That’s down from $7.65 last year, and the district says it is one of the lowest mill rates it can find in its records.
Despite the decrease in mill rate, the district plans to raise 5% more money through taxes because of an inflation-driven increase in property values. Tax assessments districtwide are up an average of 8.77%.
Other factors contributing to the increased tax levy are a $3.3 million reduction in state aid, an increase of $325 per student on the revenue limit and an increase of about $1 million in private school vouchers.
The district does expect to receive about $3 million extra from the special education reimbursement that was increased in the two-year state budget passed this summer.
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