More State Aid Than Expected for Waukesha School District

The received better-than-expected news regarding how much aid they may get from the state for the 2012-2013 school year, school district officials said at this week's school board meetings.

According to recently-released general equalization aid estimates from the state, the district currently anticipates receiving $44,478,392 from the state, only a 1.1 percent decrease from last year’s amount of aid, according to Lauri Clifton, the district’s chief financial officer and director of business services.

The district had estimated that they would receive a five percent decrease in aid from last year, Clifton informed the district’s finance committee on Monday night. Last year, the district received a 10 percent reduction in state aid.

The district expects the final equalization aid amount to change once 2011-2012 audited financial information is filed from all the school districts in the state.

The amount of equalization aid the district gets from the state doesn’t translate to more money for the district to spend, however. Under the revenue limits, more state aid means less taxes the district levies.

With this projection, taxes would be $891,000 less than last year and the mill rate would be $9.33, assuming a two percent decrease in property values in 2012. The mill rate for 2011 was $9.24.

The district expects to have a preliminary budget prepared within the next few weeks.