Revenue Controls

• There is no correlation between public school student needs and the cost of living. Public schools are experiencing rising costs (above the rate of inflation) associated with educating EEN and bilingual students, opening new facilities, student transportation, improvements to school building safety, utility and heating costs, and textbooks.
• School districts that are opening new buildings are not allowed an adjustment for increased staffing and building operations costs.
• The original figure on which current and future revenue controls are based is 1992-93 costs. School districts that were frugal in their spending, and lived within their means, are penalized, relative to districts whose expenditures exceeded their revenues in that particular year.
• School district revenue controls exacerbate the per-pupil spending disparities that currently exist among school districts in Wisconsin. School districts with high per-pupil spending were allowed to raise more money (on a dollar basis) than school districts with lower per-pupil spending.
• Strict revenue controls were not imposed upon other units of local government with property taxing authority, such as counties and municipalities.

Posted May 29, 1997