WRS Contribution Rate Decrease
By Wisconsin School Administrators Alliance staff | June 26, 2017
The Employee Trust Fund (ETF), has published the Wisconsin Retirement System (WRS) rate for 2018. The total rates for the “General/Teacher” employee category decrease from 13.6% in 2017 to 13.4% in 2018. In most instances this means that both the school district employee and employer contributions will change to 6.7% on January 1, 2018 (unfunded liabilities are not included and, if those exist, they vary by employer).
The ETF notes that rates are decreasing “due to positive investment returns”. The full ETF press release is available by clicking on the hyperlink Employer Bulletin Vol 34 No 11.
Topics: SAA Capitol Reports, SAA Capitol Reports with Email Notifications, SAA Latest Update | No Comments »
JFC Democrats Offer K-12 Package
By Wisconsin School Administrators Alliance staff | June 23, 2017
From The Wheeler Report . . .
The Democratic members of the Joint Finance Committee held a press conference today to announce their proposal for K-12 funding for the 2017-19 budget. According to the proposal, the package would:
- Put $514 million additional dollars into the general aid formula
- Implement DPI Supt. Ever’s Fair Funding Proposal
- Keep Gov. Walker’s $200/$204 per pupil aid increases for all districts.
- Fix funding for low-spending districts under revenue limits
- Increase special education funding by almost $90 million
- Provide rural school sparsity aid through a sum sufficient appropriation.
- Restore $500 million in local revenue authority to schools
- Put voucher schools on a referendum ballot
- Place school safety plans, energy efficiency, and alcohol and drug abuse programming outside spending limits.
- Reduce property taxes by increasing school funding ($25 million).
Specifically, the omnibus motion addresses the following items:
- General School Aids Funding.
- School Levy Tax Credit
- High Poverty Aid
- Low-Income Pupil Weighting
- Special Adjustment Aid
- Minimum Aid
- Secondary Cost Ceiling
- Hold Harmless Aid
- Revenue Limit Per Pupil Adjustments.
- Low Revenue Adjustment.
- Per Pupil Aid
- Summer School Enrollment
- Energy Efficiency Exemption
- School Safety Plan Revenue Limit Exemption
- Sparsity Aid
- High Cost Pupil Transportation Aid
- Mental Health Programs and Bullying Prevention Program
- Milwaukee Performance Funding.
- Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse Program
- Special Education Aid
- School Breakfast Program
- Private School Choice Programs
- State Aid Reductions for Statewide and Racine Choice Programs
- Private School Choice Programs – Reestimate
- Statewide Private School Choice Program – Participation Limit
- Private School Choice Programs – Teacher Licensure
- Private School Choice Programs – Background Checks
- Private School Choice Programs – Assessment of Reading Readiness
- Private School Choice Programs – Criteria for High School Graduation
- Private School Choice Programs – Expulsion Policy
- Private School Choice Programs – Corporal Punishment
- Private School Choice Programs – Building Inspections
- Private School Choice Programs – Miscellaneous Provisions
- Private School Choice Programs – Enrollment Limit
- Rural School Teacher Loan Forgiveness
- Expiration Dates for Teacher and Administrator Licenses.
See WPR Coverage here.
Topics: SAA Capitol Reports, SAA Capitol Reports with Email Notifications, SAA Latest Update | No Comments »
GOP Far Apart on Transpo; No Concensus on K-12
By Wisconsin School Administrators Alliance staff | June 23, 2017
From WisPolitics.com … (late yesterday)
Joint Finance Committee Co-chair Alberta Darling said today top GOP leaders have a long way to go on reaching a consensus on transportation, another sign the budget won’t be completed by the end of the fiscal year on June 30.
“We are as far apart on transportation as we were a few months ago,” Darling, R-River Hills, told WisPolitics.com in an interview this afternoon.
Fellow JFC Co-chair John Nygren told reporters yesterday the Senate and Assembly GOP are split on bonding, as the Senate supports bonding at levels higher than the $500 million Gov. Scott Walker has proposed, a position Assembly Republicans oppose. A spokeswoman for Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald later said Fitzgerald is advocating for $850 million in bonding.
Darling said in addition to broadly discussing transportation, top GOP leaders have yet to reach a consensus on K-12 education funding, following three consecutive days of closed-door meetings between Darling, Nygren, Fitzgerald, Speaker Robin Vos and others.
Darling also said members have yet to reach an agreement on property taxes, another major sticking point in budget discussions.
She said the group plans to meet again on Tuesday to continue negotiations, but maintains that members have “made some good progress” on the budget so far.
Topics: SAA Capitol Reports, SAA Capitol Reports with Email Notifications, SAA Latest Update | No Comments »
Budget Talks Continue
By Wisconsin School Administrators Alliance staff | June 22, 2017
From WisPolitics.com … (late yesterday)
GOP legislative leaders are still at an impasse on the transportation budget, although they’re confident they will strike a deal soon on K-12 education.
GOP leg leaders met yesterday as well as this afternoon.
Still, Joint Finance Committee Co-chair John Nygren said it would be a “challenge” to wrap up the budget by the end of the fiscal year on June 30.
Nygren, R-Marinette, told reporters during the Assembly session this afternoon that the committee is not meeting tomorrow, but he expects budget negotiations to continue then.
Earlier today, Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, meanwhile, noted he’d prefer to spend this week negotiating and finding “common ground” in order to reach a consensus before holding more committee hearings.
And Nygren said he’s hopeful the education budget could be completed by next week.
“I think we’ve made progress on education to the point where I think we can come to an agreement fairly quickly,” he told reporters today. “It’s going to come down, I believe, to transportation being the main stumbling block for us moving forward.”
Assembly Speaker Robin Vos said yesterday’s closed door discussions, which included Vos, Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald, members of the nonpartisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau and JFC co-chairs Nygren and Sen. Alberta Darling, didn’t stray from education.
“We have a lot left just to figure out on education,” said Vos, R-Rochester. “Do we pause to talk about transportation?”
On transportation, Nygren said the Senate GOP supports bonding at levels higher than what Gov. Scott Walker has proposed, a position Assembly Republicans are “solidly against,” as Vos called for a long-term transportation solution.
“Bonding is nothing more than a Band-Aid to us,” Vos said.
Fitzgerald spokeswoman Myranda Tanck said Fitzgerald’s advocating for $850 million in bonding for transportation, $350 million more than Walker proposed.
Vos also called Rep. Amy Loudenbeck’s proposal to charge a per-mile fee on heavy trucks a “short term solution,” although he said he was still open to it, along with other ideas. Still, he noted that it hasn’t yet been discussed by the group.
See Wisconsin State Journal coverage here.
See Wisconsin Public Radio coverage here.
Topics: SAA Capitol Reports, SAA Capitol Reports with Email Notifications, SAA Latest Update | No Comments »
Closed-Door Budget Talks Continue Today
By Wisconsin School Administrators Alliance staff | June 21, 2017
From WisPolitics.com …
GOP leaders will continue closed-door talks today on the budget, as they try to strike a deal on the remaining big-ticket items of K-12 education, taxes and transportation.
Their offices reported they were making progress following a full day of budget talks yesterday, although no notice for a possible Joint Finance Committee meeting on Thursday has yet been circulated.
The closed-door meeting yesterday, which started in the morning and ended before 5 p.m., included Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald, members of the nonpartisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau and the Joint Finance Committee co-chairs: Rep. John Nygren and Sen. Alberta Darling.
Spokespeople for Fitzgerald, Darling and Nygren confirmed progress had been made in the meeting, although they declined to provide specifics.
Topics: SAA Capitol Reports, SAA Capitol Reports with Email Notifications, SAA Latest Update | No Comments »