A provision in
the spending package
would have given
$50 million in state aid to
Wisconsin technical colleges
the aim being to reduce
the burden on
local property taxes.
So describe to us how
getting $50 million from
the state is not a good thing
in your mind.
Technical colleges are
local units of government
and we have always been a
state and local partnership.
So we think both
local funding and state funding
are both important.
However, we would like to
hang on to the remaining
property tax levy that
we have access to.
It has been capped
by the Legislature
so it's not rising.
We are not the cause of rising
property taxes here
in Wisconsin.
We think that aid efforts
to relieve property taxes
should probably go where
the issues are.
So in the last budget
you sought additional
state funding
but it came in $36 million
I think
less than you requested.
Is that an example
of the uncertainty kind of
of state aid?
That's exactly it.
We have not
competed very well in
recent state budgets for
lawmakers' attention
and their priorities.
Because of that
we have come to really
think about property taxes
as ballast
in our budget.
It's a relatively small portion
maybe about 28% of
our overall budget
but it's an important portion
that stabilizes our budgets
and keeps things reliable
flexible, and allows us to
really be responsive when
local communities come
to us for help.