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Where Did the Money Go?

One might get the impression that the finances are intentionally opaque.

A massive $1.8 million tuck-pointing project at East to replace deteriorating mortar was on the list of projects when voters approved the Madison Metropolitan School District’s five-year, $26 million maintenance referendum in 2005. But over time the project morphed into a $5,000 job, which was done last summer. Tuck-pointing at East now appears in referendum project records as completed.

Repeated efforts by The Capital Times since April to get clear and detailed information about this and other maintenance referendum projects have turned up incomplete answers from Madison School District administrators. Indeed, it was a request by The Capital Times under the state open records law for spending figures related to the 2005-2010 maintenance referendum that revealed — in a chance e-mail — that the intended thorough tuck-pointing job at East received only $5,000 worth of work.

In response to open records requests by The Capital Times, the district eventually turned over hundreds of pages of information, but the newspaper’s analysis has found that millions of dollars of expenses are lumped together in ways that make it extraordinarily difficult to tease out exactly what was done by whom, when it was done, how completely it was done, and how much each project cost.

The confusion surrounding the tuck-pointing project at East, in fact, serves as a prime example of just how complex the district’s building services budget is and how difficult it can be for community members and even Madison School Board members to get information to help them understand how money has been spent for maintenance projects.

That’s a problem, because the district still faces huge maintenance needs and will likely go to voters with another maintenance referendum. A recent report prepared by an engineering firm estimates that the district will need to spend about $85 million to patch up its aging schools in the next decade or so. And that’s after about $8 million a year has been budgeted over the past 10 years for repairs.

Posted by Owen at 1950 hrs
Politics + Politics - Wisconsin

1. A microcosm of the state’s governmental fiscal policy. Ask for the moon and when you get it, squander it, then complain it was insufficient. Someone is walking around with bulging pockets while the tax payers are getting thinner. Why is it when Government and all of the associated bureaucracies were smaller they were more accountable. Seems Government entities have become our Sujata Sachdeva, and we are KOSS Corporation.

   Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on June 17, 2010 at 1047 hrs
   
   
   

2. While I understand your viewpoint on wasted money, I have to say within the MMSD schools I spend too many hours working with students there is so much needed and so little being done.  Benches falling done, basketball hoops broken, parking lots and playgrounds in bad shape, ventilation problems that are causing some classrooms to be over 85 degrees.  I know it seems someone is walking around with stuffed pockets…but I’ll be darn if I find any maintence personal or staff with very fancy stuff.

   Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on June 18, 2010 at 1708 hrs
   
   
   

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