Nov. 17, 2024 noon
(WGTD)---If state-mandated levy limits had kept up with inflation, the 2025-2026 Kenosha Unified budget picture would be a comfortably happy one. But even though they're sitting on a nearly $5 billion surplus, state legislators have kept on the clamps, forcing the district to go to a referendum in hopes of filling a projected $23 million deficit.
Tuesday night, the school board will consider asking voters in February to increase the district's levy limit by the amount of next year's projected deficit: $23 million. They'll also need to decide just how long that extension should remain in place.
"Had the revenue limit kept up with inflation since 2011, that would've been an additional $31 million to our budget," Weiss tells WGTD News. "However it hasn't done that. And that's been seen across the state with a record number of referendum questions this year."
The 2025-2026 projected deficit comes even as the district recently closed seven schools, eliminated 200 positions, kept pay increases below the level of inflation and reduced benefits, according to Weiss.
Passage of the referendum will enable the district to make security improvements, including the installation of controlled entrances at the seven remaining schools that currently don't have them, Weiss said. Without the extra money, the district will look drastically different than it does now, Weiss has said in the past.
Districts rely on a combination of property taxes and state aid. However, it's the levy limits that really control the show. State aid and levy limits for the next two years will be set by the new legislature next year.
It's anybody's guess what'll happen.
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