Colfax school district anticipating $10.03 million in expenditures for 2023-2024
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By LeAnn R. Ralph
COLFAX — The Colfax school district is anticipating expenditures of $10,026,059 for the 2023-2024 school year.
The Colfax Board of Education reviewed the preliminary budget July 10 at a meeting scheduled for 5:30 p.m.
The revenue for 2023-2024 is expected to be $9,901,164.
The revenue is anticipated to be $124,895 less than the expenditures.
The good news from the 2023-2025 biennial state budget is that school districts will be able to increase their revenue limit by $1,000 to $11,000 per student, said William C. Yingst Jr., district administrator.
For the past 30 years, school districts have operated under revenue limits, he noted.
Those districts that were spending more money rather than less 30 years ago benefitted by having a higher revenue limit from the very beginning, Yingst noted.
Those districts that were more conservative in their spending were penalized and started out with a lower revenue limit, he said.
The per student limit was $9,000, Yingst said, when he started as district administrator 10 years ago.
The limit went to $10,000 per student a few years ago, he said.
The revenue limit has not kept up with the increases in other expenses, Yingst said.
The Wisconsin Association for Equity in Funding had asked for a $1,500 increase per pupil. The state Legislature wanted a $500 increase, and $1,000 per pupil was the compromise, he said.
The school districts also will be allowed an additional $325 per student.
Not every district is a low-revenue district, Yingst said.
On the revenue limit worksheet, there used to be a “hold harmless” line that meant the school district could not get less than the current, but the hold harmless line is now gone, he said.
School districts also may not get all of the $325 per pupil if the school district has declining enrollment, Yingst said, adding that most school districts in the state do have declining enrollment.
The preliminary budget shows a shortfall of $120,000, and the increases should ensure that the school district can make the budget, he said.
When asked how the $1,000 and $325 would be funded — whether that money would come as state aid or whether it would come from the local property tax levy — Yingst said the $1,000 per student increase would go on the property tax levy the first year and then would “be aided” in subsequent years.
Colfax has a low mill rate of a little over $5 per $1,000 of property value compared to some other school districts that have mill rates of $12 or $14, he noted.
A mill rate of $12 would amount to $2,400 in school property taxes on a property with an equalized value of $200,000, while a mill rate of $5 would amount to $1,000 in school property taxes on a property with an equalized value of $200,000.
With a mill rate of $14, that would amount to a school property tax of $2,800 on a property with an equalized value of $200,000.
As a general rule, when school districts receive more state aid, then less property tax levy is needed to cover the budget, and when school districts receive less state aid, then more property tax levy is needed to cover the budget, Yingst said.
The budget numbers at this point are an estimate, and the exact amount of property tax that will be levied and the exact amount of state aid that will be received will not be known until this fall, he said.