Thursday, February 25, 2010

Monona Mayor Kahl's Analysis of the MG School District Budget

Dear Editor:


Residents of the Monona Grove School District are hopefully by now beginning to fully understand the dire financial situation confronting our district. However, I think a quick recap is in order to ensure everyone fully comprehends the extent of the problem.

This is not a $1 million dollar budget hole that can be fixed this year with cuts including closing Maywood School. The district’s problems are much larger than that. Superintendent Gerlach has often referred to this as a $15 million dollar operating budget deficit and I know there are many questions of how he comes to that total. Quite simply, using a five year projection the total amounts to $15 million because the district needs to make $1 million in cuts each year in addition to the money cut in preceding years. The chart below shows how this amount is calculated.


Year 1 2010-2011 Needed Cut of $1 million

Year 2
2010-2011 Needed Cut of $1 million PLUS
2011-2012 Needed Cut of $1 million

Year 3
2010-2011 Needed Cut of $1 million PLUS
2011-2012 Needed Cut of $1 million PLUS
2012-2013 Needed Cut of $1 million

Year 4
2010-2011 Needed Cut of $1 million PLUS
2011-2012 Needed Cut of $1 million PLUS
2012-2013 Needed Cut of $1 million PLUS
2013-2014 Needed Cut of $1 million

Year 5
2010-2011 Needed Cut of $1 million PLUS
2011-2012 Needed Cut of $1 million PLUS
2012-2013 Needed Cut of $1 million PLUS
2013-2014 Needed Cut of $1 million PLUS
2014-2015 Needed Cut of $1 million

Total Deficit if No Cuts Made = $15 million


Frankly the number is higher if you project out longer and it could be alternatively described as $5 million in new cuts that are sustained. However, for discussion purposes we can agree to the district’s description of the situation and look at this over the next five years and agree the problem is $15 million.

The multi-faceted state funding mechanism for public schools is not going to change anytime soon so revenue from that source will flatten off at best and more likely decrease in coming years. That leaves us with the option of either raising property taxes or cutting operational costs. It is apparent to anyone with a calculator that the district will need to go to a referendum to raise more property taxes and do so soon as it is simply unfeasible to make the total amount of needed cuts. The “plan” of the district is prior to going to that referendum to have some “blood in the streets” in their own words by undergoing significant cuts to programming and closing Maywood School. After this blood letting, they will then come to the citizens of the district within the next year or so and ask for permission to exceed the property tax levy limits.

Monona pays 55% of the property taxes that fund our school district, the Village of Cottage Grove 27% and the townships account for the balance of 18%. My question to the school board and administration is why would Monona agree at that time in the near future to step up and cover 55% of that levy increase if you have already imposed immediate reactionary cuts disproportionally impacting Monona without formulating a long-range plan to address this entire $15 million dollar operating budget deficit? That plan could involve cuts, referendum or a combination of both but nonetheless it would be a plan with a timeline and a clear objective of eliminating our entire operating budget deficit. What is before us now is not a plan by any definition of the term and that is why I think so many in this district are struggling to grasp the severity of the situation because the focus has been on these short-term cuts without putting those cuts into proper long-term context.

Let me attempt to provide some context by discussing the $5 million in needed cuts to avoid the $15 million dollar deficit. Using the district’s own math, closing Maywood saves about $259,000 (this is a gross amount as we are not including remodeling costs at Winnequah) which leaves $4,741,000 in other cuts that need to be made. In other words, closing Maywood only addresses about 5% of the district’s operating budget shortfall over the next five years. Where will the rest of the needed 95% in savings come from assuming additional revenues are not achieved? Personnel costs account for about 80% of the district’s budget so it is obvious that this is where the majority of cuts will need to be imposed. As an example, let us assume to address our budgetary deficit we eliminate 25 teacher positions in the district. While this is a large number, that cut is roughly only $1.5 million dollars in salary and benefits and it only addresses 30% of our budget shortfall. I want to make clear that I am certainly not advocating for this cut, but simply pointing out that even draconian cuts to staff, which will in turn correlate to significant negative impacts on programs, still leaves us with a huge budget gap that we will need to close. Specifically, those personnel cuts combined with closing Maywood only gets us to about 35% of needed cuts, leaving approximately 65% or about $3,241,000 more in needed cuts over the next five years to balance the budget. It is evident the district cannot cut its way out of this entire problem.

So if the district can’t cut its way out of this situation and a referendum is a foregone conclusion, why are we not having that candid discussion about our long term plan right now? If the district wants to pass the inevitable forthcoming referendum, I would respectfully suggest the following be done immediately and prior to the implementation of any cuts:

1) The problem has repeatedly been described in terms of five years but the solution in terms of one year. Please present the residents of the district with a five year plan of what cuts will be made without a referendum. A clear picture needs to be provided so the facts can come out versus the misconception of many that the current cuts being proposed are the only cuts needed to solve our budgetary problems. We need to face the real possibility that a referendum does not pass and we need to see what our district looks like under that scenario.

2) Since it is obvious the district will eventually need to go to referendum, please tell us when that is happening and how much you plan on asking for from the taxpayers.

3) Move the administrative offices from Nichols to Maywood and leave early childhood through 1st grade there with Winnequah then housing 2nd through 6th graders. Alternatively, and preferably from a capital cost perspective, move administration to Winnequah and otherwise maintain current grade configurations. Either way, I would expect some of the district administrators and support staff to be able to help with administrative duties at Maywood or Winnequah similar to my expectation in these difficult times that all city staff including management wear multiple hats. I would also hope to see operating savings in closing Nichols similar or higher than that proposed by closing Maywood. Moving forward we then must act thoughtfully and expeditiously to make a final determination about the long term plans for Nichols. If the decision is to never again bus Cottage Grove students into Monona elementary schools then do we need this facility? If it appears that Nichols is not a long-term needed school facility, I would then ask the board to discuss and decide if it should be leased or sold? I understand that the Madison School District has expressed an interest in renting Nichols. I also have at least two developers potentially interested in redeveloping the site right now with different options for the district on how it would partner and benefit from said developments. However, until the district decides whether Nichols is needed as a district facility and understands the realistic value of this site, all these other options are in limbo.

4) Explain to us the space capacity issues in Cottage Grove schools and how the proposed transfer of Monona 6th graders to Glacial Drumlin would impact those issues and, just as importantly, how this move saves the district money over five years.

We find ourselves in a precarious position and many have taken a great deal of time to point fingers at anyone and everyone as if finding someone or some institution to blame will somehow alter the state of our reality. I am not here to point fingers as it is frankly time to move on and fix the problems confronting our district. We must now focus on what comes next and not what went wrong because the former we can do something about and the latter only works to divert our focus at this critical juncture. This is a district-wide problem that will not be solved by eliminating 4th grade strings or closing Maywood School. The situation confronting us is too complicated and important to not have a long-range solution prior to implementing immediate reactionary cuts. Without a plan that is shared now with everyone in the district, I trust the residents of the district are going to be reluctant to once again step up to support an increased property tax levy when asked to do so via a referendum that reality dictates is coming in the very near future.


Sincerely,


Robb Kahl
Mayor
City of Monona

17 comments:

  1. I like the mayor's thoughts, but I don't like his use of property taxes in it. I feel it represents an attitude (in both communities) which hurts our district. It pits Monona vs. Cottage Grove and there are other ways to divide data to show things as unfair.
    Monona may contribute more in taxes, but as a total share of the budget, Monona puts in about 33% and the Town/Village put in about 27%, far more equal. Or you could say Cottage Grove community contributes about 2/3 of state aid (this is 26% of the budget). The point is, the use of partial data suggests it is only Monona being treated unfairly.
    As the rest of the letter suggests, it is the whole district that is suffering. I am glad the Mayor suggest alternative configurations and I hope the school board looks into both of them. But if the cheapest layout would be combining Maywood and Winnequah, I think it has to be accepted.

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  2. Everything I have read thus far from the mayor is a thinly veiled threat that he will not support a referendum unless Maywood is kept open. For someone who preaches a comprehensive approach, he certainly is fixated on one item. He is also woefully ignorant of what the average taxpayer will demand before voting themselves a tax increase. While the "blood in the streets" analogy is way over the top and disrespectful to our fellow human beings in other parts of the world who actually experience this on a regular basis, many taxpayers will want to see the district has cut away luxuries before they will vote "yes." I argue that two under-capacity elementary schools across the street from each other are certainly a luxury.

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  3. "He is also woefully ignorant of what the average taxpayer will demand before voting themselves a tax increase."

    Really? He doesn't know, but you do (whoever you are)? How did you arrive at this higher state of knowledge?


    "While the "blood in the streets" analogy is way over the top and disrespectful to our fellow human beings in other parts of the world..."

    He stated the 'blood in the streets' reference was "in their own words". Not sure who 'they' are, but he says he is quoting someone else. And besides, don't play silly language police games.

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  4. The mayor has zero, none, nada experience in passing school referenda. On the other hand, several of our school board members and our superintendent do. If they say they need to show the public they have cut to the bone in order to make the case for successful referendum, I defer to their expertise.

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  5. "He is also woefully ignorant of what the average taxpayer will demand before voting themselves a tax increase.""

    I am not that anon., but I agree with his/her statement. I will not going in to details and I do not mean to slam the mayor or his success in life-this is best illusrated by my own life style.

    drive a 8 y/o vehicle
    shop at target/walmart and TJ MAX
    vacation in Door County or not at all

    Now-I have a job and am not complaining about nuthin, but do you really that annon1 was that far off?

    "He stated the 'blood in the streets' reference was "in their own words". Not sure who 'they' are, but he says he is quoting someone else. "

    Doug-I think you know that arguement does not hold water. Party X said something that is really stupid and that means our mayor can repeat it and it is OK? That statement only amps up the bs and is really not called for at this moment. If my brother threatens my with blood, I have the right to threaten him?

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  6. The mayor is certainly entitled to his own opinions, but this comment is a bridge too far:

    "Either way, I would expect some of the district administrators and support staff to be able to help with administrative duties at Maywood or Winnequah similar to my expectation in these difficult times that all city staff including management wear multiple hats."

    Can the mayor please refrain from telling the hard-working members of the board and district administration how to run our schools? The mayor in recent years has had the opportunity to either run for school board or apply to be superintendent, and he's done neither. So please spare us the lectures on how our schools on a day-to-day basis should be run.

    Better to let his increasingly self-centered ramblings on these difficult issues speak for themselves (note: his above essay uses the word "I" or "me" 15 times, or 15 more than is necessary). One hopes the school board and superintendent, working very hard under difficult circumstances, give the mayor's statements no more weight or response than any other citizen of this district.

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  7. Doug, I'm a little confused by the %s thrown around, could you elaborate a little bit? Possibly a breakdown of exactly what Monona contributes to the MG budget, and what the student breakdown is? All I've heard is that Monona's student enrollment is declining, while Cottage Grove's student base is expanding, and I would like to get some numbers to back all of this up?

    I don't want this to turn into a Monona vs. CG dispute, but if Monona is going to have to be forced to go through some of the more major cuts due to declining enrollment, I think that it would be a worthwhile discussion to have. Possibly change it to more accurately reflect the student breakdown?

    More information would be appreciated though, thanks!

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  8. "Doug, I'm a little confused by the %s thrown around, could you elaborate a little bit? Possibly a breakdown of exactly what Monona contributes to the MG budget, and what the student breakdown is?"

    Sorry, wrong person to ask. I suggest you go over to:
    http://petersobol.blogspot.com/

    and

    http://www.mononagrove.org/cms_files/resources/Public%20Hearing%20Letter%20February%2016,%2020101.pdf

    and

    http://www.mononagrove.org/BudgetInformation.cfm

    and

    the herald's coverage:

    http://herald-independent.com/main.asp?SectionID=2&SubSectionID=21&TM=37553.27

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  9. The “blood in the streets” is a quote form the Superintendent – watch the listening session from Saturday February 20th. As for the property tax reference, I too do not want to pit the communities against each other but a referendum is all about increasing property taxes so no need to reference the other sources of school revenues as a successful referendum means Monona picks up 55% of that tab.

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  10. "a successful referendum means Monona picks up 55% of that tab."

    Do most voters really worry about how much their community will pay?

    Aren't they much more interested in how much they will pay personally?

    And whether a case they find persuasive has been made that justifies that voter's increased outlay?

    And everyone in the district pays the same school tax *rate* whether you live here, there, or wherever.

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  11. Hi Doug,

    I would be interested to know President Fox's opinion on Monona Drive, all of our TIFs and any other city issues.

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  12. Doug- Please don't direct readers to a single Board member's non-Board affiliated blog for information first. Our district website and staff do an excellent job of answering questions, without the personal opinions.

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  13. Not to mention re-election campaign...

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  14. Doug's point about how we pay as individuals, not as a community, is right on the money (sorry-couldn't help myself on the pun) I live in a modest Monona home so all the people in the CG McMansions pay a lot more tax than I do. Bottom line, we are better off together than apart. Nothing good every comes of looking at this situation as anything other than one school district. Why? Because we are better off together than apart. The study from several years ago showed that. Now that the Middle School is in CG, the high school is in Monona and we have the little kids in our own communities, can't we all just get along?

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  15. "I would be interested to know President Fox's opinion on Monona Drive, all of our TIFs and any other city issues."

    Well, do I detect a bit of sarcasm there? Whatever. If she sends me her views om said topics (or on school issues), I would be glad to post them.

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  16. "Please don't direct readers to a single Board member's non-Board affiliated blog for information first. Our district website and staff do an excellent job of answering questions, without the personal opinions."

    Picky, picky, picky. Someone could accuse me of favoring the school's offerings because I posted links to two school pages and only one for Peter and the Herald. But that would be silly.

    Each of the sources I posted are a little different from the other two. I think people are smart enough to figure out the distinctions.

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  17. Oh man, sending me to research things on my OWN??!? You're not just going to spoon feed me propaganda and then send me out to regurgitate that same propaganda at elected officials county-wide?? Instead you're providing links to 3rd party resources and background information so I can make an informed and intelligent decision on my own?

    Oh man, you're new to the modern-day faux-news style politics, aren't you?

    :)

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