School tax levy raised
How they voted
The Janesville School Board voted as follows to raise property taxes 2.5 percent:
Yes: Greg Ardrey, Karl Dommershausen, Kevin Murray, Lori Stottler, Bill Sodemann.
No: Kristin Hesselbacher, Scott Feldt, DuWayne Severson, Peter Severson.
By the numbers
2.5
Percent increase in the school tax levy for Janesville.
$22.57
Amount the owner of an average-priced home will see their taxes go up.
Reader poll
JANESVILLE — In a meeting markedly different from any in the past 15 years, the Janesville School Board on Tuesday night voted to raise taxes.
The board spent more than two hours debating the issue, voting on proposal after proposal, to no avail.
In the end, in a compromise that seemed to please no one, the board voted 5-4 for a 2.5 percent increase in the school tax levy.
Officials estimated the increase would mean the owners of the average-priced $112,700 home would pay an additional $22.57 for the school portion of their property taxes.
The levy is $896,933 larger than last year, or $36.77 million.
The board voted 13 times on various proposals, all of them formulas for filling the 2011-12 budget's $5.65 million deficit.
Nearly all the proposals sought to fill the budget hole with two things: a tax increase or fund balance, or both. Mostly both.
Some school-board members, such as Peter Severson and Kristin Hesselbacher, wanted to tax as much as the state revenue cap allows, a 5.6 percent increase, estimated to cost the average homeowner about $52 more than last year.
Others wanted as little tax as possible.
DuWayne Severson pleaded passionately for no increase, saying Janesville residents who lost their jobs just can't afford it.
DuWayne Severson noted that the city is proposing a wheel tax and an increase in the water rate, and other taxing jurisdictions might also raise taxes. He said the school board should take that into account.
Severson did budge slightly, proposing a 0.25 percent tax increase, but that, like so many other proposals, could not get a majority.
Hesselbacher also backed down slightly from her tax-to-the-max approach, proposing a 4.58 percent increase.
Bill Sodemann and Scott Feldt, also advocating for as little tax as possible, were willing to bend a little more, but their ideas didn't fly, either.
The board voted 5-4 or 6-3 against proposals to increase taxes by 1 percent, 2 percent, 3 percent and more.
The low-taxers and the higher-taxers sometimes voted together, for very different reasons.
In the end, two of the "no" votes were from members who wanted to tax to the max, and two were from those who wanted to hold the line as much as possible.
Bill Sodemann, a longtime fiscal conservative and board president, appeared to have had enough shortly after 10 p.m.
"I need to get a deal done whether I like it or not," Sodemann said before the final vote.
On the other side was Lori Stottler: "I don't like it. I think it's too low," she said of the tax increase.
But with the board split as it is, "it is what it is, and we address it next year," Stottler said.
Stottler was referring to the fact that with the levy set, the remaining deficit of nearly $4 million would likely come from the fund balance, the district's reserve. That amount becomes a deficit on the district's books for the following school year, because that money was available once; it won't be available next year.
DuWayne Severson said in the end that he hoped the board wasn't voting for the increase because of the late hour, and he chided unnamed fiscal conservatives, asking them to stand up for their principles.
"I think the people of our community deserve better," DuWayne Severson said.
Kristin Hesselbacher, on the opposite end of the question, was equally passionate, choking up as she delivered her thoughts. She noted that the board has taxed less than the maximum in six of the past eight years.
"We have done a good job minding the taxpayers' dollars," she said. "Now, I think we need to mind the taxpayers' assets, and that is the School District of Janesville. I keep saying it: No one's going to move to Janesville if we don't have an excellent school system."
Oct 27, 2011 at 3:44 p.m.
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NoLeftist – I am not sure if you understand how an abacus actually works. An abacus is a tool used for performing arithmetic processes. The tool you are looking for is likely a search engine like Google or Yahoo; definitely not an abacus.
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I hope that helps you out. Don’t be embarrassed; it is a common mistake I am sure.
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I double checked my work with a calculator and found that $20 here plus $10 there to still comes out to $30.
Oct 27, 2011 at 2:54 p.m.
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Please work the abacus and tell me who pays $30 in property taxes.
Oct 27, 2011 at 2:21 p.m.
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coll3cter - "Higher taxes, when will it end...??? $20.00 here, $10.00 there... Add it all up."
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I broke out my abacus; it is $30 when added up.
Oct 27, 2011 at 1:30 p.m.
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Higher taxes, when will it end...??? $20.00 here, $10.00 there... Add it all up. They just keep taking... Over & over & over.........
Oct 27, 2011 at 9:09 a.m.
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If nobody is happy then it was a good compromise. I'm not thrilled about an increase, but I'm not going to complain over 20 bucks.
Oct 27, 2011 at 8:25 a.m.
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Didn't Madison lower theirs........Hmmmmmm.......
Oct 26, 2011 at 10:16 p.m.
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What a bunch of pansies. If you would have taxed to the max, at an additional taxpayer cost of about $30 a year ($2.50 a month), the State would have given you the "bonus money" next year for doing so. How much was that "bonus money"? What's that amount on a per-taxpayer basis that could have been saved next year?
Oct 26, 2011 at 9:55 p.m.
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And research shows that Hesselbacher is RIGHT. I'm to tired to look it up, but I have before, and it has been proven that quality of life, quality of schools and level of services are more important when people and businesses are making a location decisions than the tax rate (as long as the services are good, i.e. if the taxes are high and services LOW, then taxes matter, otherwise, not so much)
Oct 26, 2011 at 9:51 p.m.
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nemesis, research proves that you are wrong. Look it up.
Oct 26, 2011 at 9:19 p.m.
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"We have done a good job minding the taxpayers' dollars," Hesselbacher said. "Now, I think we need to mind the taxpayers' assets, and that is the School District of Janesville. I keep saying it: No one's going to move to Janesville if we don't have an excellent school system."
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Spot on.
Oct 26, 2011 at 9:13 p.m.
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No one's going to move to Janesville if you have excessively high property taxes regardless of what you spend the money on.
Oct 26, 2011 at 9:10 p.m.
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Excellent!!
Oct 26, 2011 at 6:11 p.m.
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You wonder why the assessment of your home was higher this year, Substantially higher? So they can hit you harder with levy's such as this. I ask, what happened to that $3 million excess that existed? You sent teachers packing, have an excess, but yet you want more after cutting all the classes that are needed for a child to expand as an adult. Choir and band isn't doing it. I suggest you re-assess everyone's homes at current market prices for the Janesville market and then take your levy from that.
Oct 26, 2011 at 5:22 p.m.
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"I think the people of our community deserve better," DuWayne Severson said.
Iagree with you on something Dwayne, please resign now , and take Soda with you. Time to get some board members that care about the quality of our schools not about saving a few tax dollars.
I might remind those of you that say we need to pay back the fund 10 , the balance was created by surpluses in health care spending by the district from the teachers compensation package. Ididn't see these conservatives giving the money that wasn't theirs to bank in the first place.
Citizens of janesville, ask why we have a 30 million dollar checking account(surplus) and how it was created. If the budget is in such dire straits then how on Earth is there a balance and how was it created? I know how I just want a public DESCRIPTION.
If you want them to contribute more than give them the entire compensatiuon package dont sneak money saved into a district checking account.
Oct 26, 2011 at 4:54 p.m.
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Ok you got your raise it better be going to educate the kids and not in someone’s back pocket. Why can’t Janesville schools learn work within a budget like the rest of us have to?
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