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SCHOOL BOARD PRES. NOT SURE WHAT WILL HAPPEN NEXT
Wednesday, September 13th, 2006 -- 2:32 pm
Posted by Riley Hebert-News Director
Neillsville School District voters became the latest to turn back a revenue cap exemption referendum Tuesday.
628 voted in favor to 986 opposed – or 38% in favor to 62% opposed.
If approved, the referendum would have allowed the school board to exceed the state imposed revenue caps by $250,000 this school year, $500,000 next school year and $750,000 every year thereafter.
"People are against paying any more taxes. That's it." said school board president Walter Wetzel while still at the Courthouse Tuesday night.
"I think the board has to sit down and look (at) what is best for the school district and possibly make some cuts. I guess (the public) doesn't like it run like it is," Wetzel said.
Wetzel defended the board’s decision to ask for an open-ended referendum, saying he still believed it was the right thing to do.
Hit with declining enrollments, the financially healthy district has been forced to borrow from existing fund balances to make ends meet in recent years.
Wetzel says it remains unclear what the board will do and didn’t rule out going back to district residents with another referendum.
"(The Board) hasn't talked about any cuts or any fees. Today was Neillsville's day to tell us how to run our school. We didn't get the support we were looking for, so we'll look at it from a different angle," Wetzel said.
The referendum only garnered more “yes” votes than “no” in one precinct, the City of Neillsville’s Ward 2 – and there it was only favored by one vote.
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