By Kevin Boneske
Staff Writer

ASHWAUBENON – A proposed tax levy of $15,953,957 was approved Wednesday, July 10, when the Ashwaubenon School District held its annual meeting.

Business Director Keith Lucius provided an overview of the district’s preliminary 2019-20 budget, which he said projects general fund revenues and expenditures of $34,065,785, an increase of 2.3 percent from the previous year.

Lucius noted the main factors in developing the district’s budget include: state budget variables such as the revenue limit per-pupil increase, per-pupil aid, special education aid percentage reimbursement and equalization aid factors; students counts; staffing levels, which are 85 percent of the district’s operating budget; and the cost of renewing the district’s health insurance.

With the district’s revenue limit calculated with the full-time equivalent number of resident students multiplied by the per-pupil amount for each resident student, Lucius said the recent passage of the biennial state budget increased the revenue limit per resident student by $175 to $9,799 for 2019-20.

For open enrollment students, who are not included in the revenue limit calculation and account for around a third of the district’s total enrollment of more than 3,000 students, Lucius said the district receives around $7,000 in aid per open enrollment student.

“Total budget-wise, we’re better off with resident students,” he said. “That’s where we would like to see the growth.”

Lucius said the revenue limit accounts for about 65 percent of the district’s general fund operating revenue with open enrollment revenue accounting for another 27 percent.

Of the district’s revenue limit, Lucius said Ashwaubenon, which is considered property rich compared to other districts in the state, receives about 30 percent of that through state aid with close to 70 percent coming from property taxes.

“Aid has an impact on what our tax levy and mill rate are,” he said. “Whether we get more or less equalization aid does not affect our total budget. The revenue limit calculation does. Less aid, it means more (property) taxes in the revenue limit. If we get more aid, it means less taxes in the revenue limit.”

General fund figures Lucius presented at the annual meeting project the district will receive around $6.37 million in general state aid for 2019-20, about $210,000 more than the previous school year.

Lucius said the proposed tax levy includes a general fund levy of $15,319,540, along with $124,417 in non-referendum debt service and $510,000 for the community service fund for programs that are not elementary and secondary educational and have the primary function of serving the community.

“We paid off all the referendum debt, so we don’t have a levy there,” he said.

Compared to the tax levy that was part of the 2018-19 budget, the projected levy reduction of $512,358 is primarily attributable to no referendum debt payment, which was $440,000 for the previous school year.

The general fund levy is projected to drop $106,359 with the community service levy increasing by $34,000.

“Everything’s based on estimates,” Lucius said. “All these numbers are going to change… When student counts are finalized, then we’ll know where those numbers actually land. In October, the board will set the actual levy.”

Lucius said the district’s projected equalized mill rate, which is calculated by school tax levy ($15,953,957) divided by the total equalized property value in the district (estimated at almost $2 billion) and then multiplied by 1,000, is $8.11 per $1,000.

Lucius also noted the district’s equalized mill rate has stayed below the state average, which for 2018-19 was $9.46 per $1,000.

“It’s a good trend,” he said. “Our taxpayers are getting what I would say (is) good value, compared to (the) state, as far as mill rate goes.”

He also pointed out Ashwaubenon’s mill rate has been lower than other school districts in Brown County.

Lucius said it’s premature at this point say with certainty what the district’s tax levy and mill rate will be until having final figures for enrollment and equalized value, which will be known when the school board gives final approval to the 2019-20 budget and tax levy at its October meeting.