Posted: Oct. 21, 2009

Brown Deer — y a slim margin, residents approved the recommended $13.4 million school district property tax levy - a 2.99 percent increase over last year - at a packed annual meeting Tuesday night.

It took two tallies at the end of a 2 1/2 -hour meeting to arrive at the final 140-138 vote, in an evening marked by civility by those both for and against the district's 2009-10 operational budget of $20.5 million.

"We are raising taxes because state aid is down," Business Services Manager Emily Koczela told the 300 residents at the meeting. "The aid from the state and federal government is down farther than we can cut costs. We are replacing state aid with local dollars."

Koczela, who was hired in February, outlined a lengthy process used to establish the levy and budget, citing a $1.17 million reduction in spending in the 2009-10 general operations fund. That covers salaries, benefits, utilities and a host of other expenses covering the day-to-day operations of the schools.

Tax rate impact uncertain

Koczela said the equalized tax rate would increase from $11.72 to $12.35 per $1,000 of equalized value. Because the equalized value of property in the village dropped to 97.7 percent of its value during the last year, Koczela estimated an equalized tax increase of $68 on a $200,000.

However, residents pay assessed tax rates, not equalized rates. The village has not received information from the state on manufacturing property values, so its unable to calculate the assessed tax rate, Village Manager Russell Van Gompel said Wednesday.

The district exceeded its state-mandated revenue cap in each of the last two years. Because of that, the district last year was hit with a penalty of a $100,000 loss in state aid. That's on top of other losses in state aid that has been affecting districts around the state. Koczela said the 2009-10 budget is balanced and it is her goal and the goal of the School Board to stay in the black.

Wrong time for a tax hike?

Critics of the levy increase zeroed in on the recession and its impact on the community. The local branch of Citizens for Responsible Government passed out fliers at the end of last week encouraging residents to attend the meeting.

Mike Christopulos, secretary of that group, cited unemployment and the lack of an increase in payments for Social Security recipients and pushed for no increase in the levy.

Deloris Parr told the audience she lost a job that paid $67,000 in 2008 and just recently landed a temporary position, but she supported the increase.

"We need to keep the system at a level to move forward," she said.

Former village president Margaret Jaberg chaired the annual meeting, asking residents to hold up paper ballots to vote for or against the levy. The tally of that vote - 136 for, 134 against - drew an immediate call from the audience asking for a recount by marking the ballots.

The recount showed the levy passing by a 140-138 vote.

Voters also agreed to allow the board to set the time, date and location for the 2010 annual meeting and, on a motion from Christopulos, to maintain the School Board salaries at $3,100 per year.

"They do a lot of work and I appreciate it even if I don't always agree with them," he said.