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5/14/2009
BCTA: Rep. Nelson won't back away form QEO repeal, prevailing wage expansion
Rep. Tom Nelson spoke to members of the Brown County Taxpayers Association at their meeting April 16 meeting. Meetings are held the third Thursdays of every month at noon at Titletown Brewing Co., Green Bay.
Assembly Majority Leader and 5th District Representative Tom Nelson spoke to the April BCTA meeting about state budget issues. He began by explaining that the legislature is in the middle of the budget process. He pointed out that a 14-year backlog of Democratic proposals was being addressed. The Joint Committee on Finance is using the governor’s budget as a starting point. At the end of May or in early June, the Assembly will receive the budget from the Joint Committee on Finance for legislative action.
Representative Nelson stated that Wisconsin’s K-12 school funding formula is old and archaic. For example, the Seymour School District receives 80 cents of state aid per dollar of the district’s budget while the Washington Island School District receives zero. He recounted that the current K-12 school funding agreement consists of three components:
* The Qualified Economic Offer (QEO).
* Revenue caps.
* Two-thirds funding by the State of Wisconsin.
Given the current budget dilemma, the State’s “two-thirds” funding of K-12 education will decrease from 65 percent to 62 percent for next year.
He noted that Governor Doyle’s proposal to eliminate the QEO would delink wages from benefits. He said that the Legislative Fiscal Bureau projects that repeal of the QEO would not increase property taxes if the revenue caps stay in place. The only reason he could give for repeal of the QEO is it is a “fairness issue” with the teachers union. A member asked how this rationale could be accepted as state teachers have fared much better under the QEO than regular state employees who are not under the QEO law.
Representative Nelson was questioned about the propriety of rapidly increasing expenditures in Fund 80 by local school districts. The Community Services Fund (Fund 80) is a K-12 non-education fund which allows school boards to levy taxes outside revenue caps without obtaining approval from taxpayers. Statewide, school districts are shifting expenditures into Fund 80 with amazing creativity. A member asked him if the three items recently placed into Fund 80 by the Green Bay School District met the intent of Fund 80, and he replied: “probably not”. There was then a discussion of what avenues are available to taxpayers to get the law enforced.
Responding to a question about why the Stimulus requirements require that even volunteers on public projects might have to be paid the prevailing wage, Representative Nelson stated that federal stimulus appropriations require Davis-Bacon compliance above a $2,000 threshold; we should expect amendments that will result in a higher threshold of $25,000 or $30,000. (The minimum threshold at which prevailing wages apply is currently $234,000.) The law would apply to primarily privately-funded projects, if even a small amount of state or local dollars are involved, which is not currently the case.
Dave Nelson is the Secretary of the Brown County Taxpayers Association.
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