RAYMOND —The Raymond School Board will vote next month on whether to include on the November ballot one of two operational referendum options over the next four years: The first totals $3 million, and the second totals $2.4 million.
Interim Superintendent Dr. James Heiden and Elise Murn, the district’s representative from Baird, gave a recorded presentation on Monday, May 20, about the options available to close the $754,011 gap in the next budget year and keep the school running without impacting students.
Two options for referendum
Should board members decide a referendum is the way to go, they have two options to consider:
- $3 million, or $750,000 per year for four years
- $2.4 million, or $600,000 per year for four years
According to Heiden and Murn, without a referendum, the district has another year of operating at its current staffing level and various student activities before cutting faculty and eliminating extracurricular and enrichment programming.
“You’re fine for the rest of this year, but next year would be a different story,” Heiden said. “No one likes a referendum, but we’re at a point where we don’t have any other options.”
Referendum will increase mill rate
To fund any budgetary referendum, property owners experience increased taxes over the life of the referendum.
In Raymond, the current mill rate is $3.77 per $1,000 of assessed value. For a home valued at $100,000, the school portion of that parcel’s property tax would come to $377.
For the $3 million option, mill rates would increase most dramatically in the first year and decline each following year:
| 2024-2025 | 2025-2026 | 2026-2027 | 2027-2028 |
| $5.05 | $4.79 | $4.68 | $4.82 |
The $2.4 million option also includes a steeper increase in the first year followed by decreases each following year:
| 2024-2025 | 2025-2026 | 2026-2027 | 2027-2028 |
| $4.83 | $4.57 | $4.46 | $4.40 |
These figures also consider an unexpected 20% increase in health insurance expenses for the next school year and 10% thereafter, as well as 0% wage increases for the 2024-2025 school year and 2% each following year.
Racine County Eye will have more of this story in the coming days.
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