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A provision in

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the spending package

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00:00:01,935 --> 00:00:02,603
would have given

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$50 million in state aid to

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Wisconsin technical colleges

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the aim being to reduce

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the burden on

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local property taxes.

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So describe to us how

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getting $50 million from

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the state is not a good thing

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in your mind.

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Technical colleges are

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local units of government

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and we have always been a

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state and local partnership.

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So we think both

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local funding and state funding

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are both important.

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However, we would like to

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hang on to the remaining

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property tax levy that

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we have access to.

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It has been capped

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by the Legislature

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so it's not rising.

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We are not the cause of rising

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property taxes here

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in Wisconsin.

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We think that aid efforts

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to relieve property taxes

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should probably go where

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the issues are.

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So in the last budget

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you sought additional

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state funding

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but it came in $36 million

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I think

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less than you requested.

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Is that an example

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of the uncertainty kind of

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of state aid?

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That's exactly it.

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00:00:58,725 --> 00:00:59,693
We have not

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competed very well in

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00:01:00,794 --> 00:01:02,663
recent state budgets for

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lawmakers' attention

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and their priorities.

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Because of that

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we have come to really

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think about property taxes

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as ballast

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in our budget.

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It's a relatively small portion

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maybe about 28% of

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our overall budget

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but it's an important portion

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that stabilizes our budgets

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and keeps things reliable

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flexible, and allows us to

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really be responsive when

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local communities come

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to us for help.