What a slap in the face to the taxpayers.
Four months after rejecting a $12.5 million increase in spending for operations, residents in the West Allis-West Milwaukee School District will see their taxes rise anyway after the district’s requests for $15.8 million in state loans were approved Wednesday.
The state’s three-member Board of Commissioners of Public Lands voted 2-1 to approve the loans: $12.8 million to pay for energy efficiency improvements and an additional $3 million for capital projects.
The loans will nearly double the debt of the suburban Milwaukee County district, which has been struggling to regain its financial footing after blowing through $17.5 million in reserves in recent years before posting a $2.1 million deficit in 2016.
RELATED: West Allis school district turns to taxpayers after blowing through $17.5 million in reserves
Andy Chromy, director of finance and operations for the district, defended the School Board’s decision to seek the loans after residents rejected extra spending in a referendum.
“We have 17 schools that are at least 46 years old and we are not able to replace all of them,” Chromy said. “So, this is an avenue to help us at least try to keep the schools we have in the best condition we can.”
To Andy Chromy… that may be true, but you already made that case to the voters and they said “no.” It’s unconscionable to just ram a tax increase through a loophole after the voters said no.
I would also add that there are many, many buildings still in very good use that are older than 46 years old (*cough* capitol building; Lambeau Field; hundreds of churches; etc. *cough*). The only reason they would need to be replaced is with gross mismanagement of their upkeep. Obviously, the voters of that district came to the same conclusion.
Schimel is more a disappointment than the WAWM bunch of bozos.
Perhaps he should stick to rock-n-roll….
Owen:
Lambeau Field is a really, really poor example for you to cite. Been there lately? It is in a constant remodeling and expansion mode, has been for years, and will be into the future. And the Capitol building has had continuous improvements going on for at least the last 30 years .
Precisely. So have thousands of old buildings in Wisconsin and elsewhere (been to Europe?). Why can’t school districts seem to continually maintain and update their buildings instead of razing them to the ground to build new ones?
But that is what they said they are going to do, at least with some of the money.
“$12.8 million to pay for energy efficiency improvements” I think this is great. Our SD has saved a lot of $$ with new technology retro fit into old facilities.
““We have 17 schools that are at least 46 years old and we are not able to replace all of them,” Chromy said. “So, this is an avenue to help us at least try to keep the schools we have in the best condition we can.”
So the district that neglected its building for decades is NOW going to maintain them? Can you blame taxpayers for being skeptical?
Even if they are being truthful, they made their best case to the voters and the voters said “no.” Shouldn’t they abide by the will of the voters?
When I want to buy something, I save my money until I have enough to pay for what I want. Government is notorious for not doing this but why would anyone bother to put money away when they can just dip into the taxpayers wallet when the want to.
If a school needs to spend $10K a year on maintenance and spends only $8K, the result will be similar to the state of the roads in Milwaukee. Arrowhead put two referendums on the ballot in one year; both were defeated. Just like West Allis-West Milwaukee, it is doubtful they got the message. I pray Arrowhead doesn’t read about West Allis-West Milwaukee and get new ideas on how to circumvent the will of the voters/bill payers.