What Budget Questions Are People Wondering But No One is Asking?

1. Seven (7) Teachers retired this year at an average salary of $72,500 and benefits average of 27,500. That comes to $100,000 per staff member. The number used for new teachers is $50,000 (including benefits). That translates to a net replacement "savings" of $350,000. Where is it? How come THAT wasn't a bullet point in the budget presentation?

2. Utility costs are still increasing 43% ($350K). How come no one is mentioning that this year we are finally done paying $9,000 per month ($108K per year) to an Energy Education service to teach us that shutting off lights and lowering thermostats in the winter saves us money?

3. Why do the documents indicate that Fund Balance will drop to $6.1M at the end of 2010-11? The data show a reduction in fund balance of $1.9M. Hold on thar! Weren't we only taking a maximum of $800K from Fund Balance? Shouldn't this data show that? Or are we trying to subliminally suggest the community can't affords to lower the tax levy again?

4. How come no one is talking about the projections used for administration and Admin Support salaries? Hmmmm? Many districts are freezing these salaries. "Policy" is form administrators to "get" the same amount of raise as teachers got the prior year. Well...that was 4.2%. Is the board planning to give them 4.2%?

5. Ditto for Local 60 contracts. Are these folks going to get poked in unmentionable places again? What projections do we have for pay raises for this "class" of personnel?

6. Why are we budgeting $200K for property tax chargebacks? Yes, a little over $100K is being paid to Sun Prairie after July 1...but where is the rest projected to come from?

7. Why are "Dues and Fees" up over 20% to $33K?

8. We understand that Admin is planning to again collect personal appliance fees (about $3000-6,000) from staff. Really? Come on! You'll fight to add $5,000 in salary to a Pool Manager. You'll pay over $6,000 (so far) in legal fees because someone had the bright ideas to remove a coach in mid-season based on complaints from the players that the coach was too rough on them. You'll continue to pay a Construction Manager $7,300per month after the keys to the TajMaHighSchool [we'd love to take credit for that one...but it belongs to someone else] have been handed over? You'll buy not one but TWO newspaper subscriptions for district office staff and put fancy gold name plates on their doors. But you want to squeeze staff for appliance fees? Break ME off a piece of that Kit Kat bar. Oh...wait...credit where credit is due: Operation Birthday KitKatBars has been deep-sixed until further notice.

9. Why do 14 of the 16 Dane County districts have a Fund 80 for Community Service and we do not? 15 of the 21 similar sized districts operate a Community service Fund (Fund 80). And don't tell us that you don't because Fund 80 would allow you to raise taxes. Yes, a tax can be levied for Fund 80, but a district is not REQUIRED to do so. All it takes is a little restraint. The important thing is that the district DOES take on costs related to community service related activities, and we should show that. More to the point...we take in a lot of revenue from field and facility rentals...and will be doing so even more with the pool and PAC. It's time to show where all this money is going. Oh...and don't tell us that all the districts that operate a fund 80 tax up to the revenue limit...because they don't. In fact, 50% of the similar sized districts that have a Fund 80 tax UNDER the revenue limit (by as much as $1.2M). So let's just keep that horse in its stall.

10. Why are postage fees increasing by 43% to $96K? Postage rates aren't increasing. No referenda are planned...right? And, if you want to do Outreach...shouldn't we be doing more thing electronically to save costs? Being a high-tech district and all?