Independent Student Newspaper Since 1969

The Badger Herald

Independent Student Newspaper Since 1969

The Badger Herald

Independent Student Newspaper Since 1969

The Badger Herald

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More funding to area schools

[media-credit name=’JAKE NAUGHTON/Herald photo’ align=’alignnone’ width=’648′]VoteLine_JN[/media-credit]

By a vote of 68 percent to 32 percent, Madison residents passed a referendum to increase funding for the Madison Metropolitan School District by raising property taxes.

“This is the most crucial referendum we have had here in Madison,” said Marjorie Passman, member of the MMSD Board of Education.

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If the referendum had not passed, the Board of Education would have been forced to cut spending by an additional $5 million, bringing total budget cuts this year to $8 million, according to Passman and statistics provided by Active Citizens for Education, a non-profit group that monitors the MMSD.

The measure will cover the budget shortfall for the next three years by raising property taxes on all residences within the MMSD, which includes most of the University of Wisconsin campus.

For a property valued at $250,000, property taxes will go up by an average of $63.20 per year for the next three years, according to statistics provided by Active Citizens for Education.

Despite the passage of the referendum, the school district’s financial shortfalls are likely to continue, according to Don Severson, president of Active Citizens for Education.

“The formula and the methods for paying for schools needs to be thoroughly examined and reworked,” Severson said. “Under school district’s agreement with its staff, it must increase salary and benefits to by at least 3.8 percent per year. State law, however, forbids the school district from raising taxes by more than 2.2 percent per year without calling a referendum.”

According to Arlene Silveira, president of the MMSD’s Board of Education, the results of this situation are predictable. The school district must choose between calling a referendum every three years or significantly cutting spending on educational programs.

“The state funding system is strangling schools,” Silveira said, citing the state law which caps tax increases.

Other members of the Board of Education agreed that the school district’s financial system is in need of a major overhaul.

“We need to find a way of refinancing our schools, but that is not going to happen tomorrow,” Passman said, adding the passage of the referendum will “help us survive until tomorrow.”

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