Scott Milfred takes the Democrat Legislature to Task for K-12 Budget

Scott Milfred's editorial in yesterday's State Journal is a must read. You can find it here.

He begins by pointing out that more than 90 school districts will see cuts larger than 15% despite promises from Democrat leaders to the contrary. He then goes on to squarely lay the blame at the feet of the Democrats who control all of state government:

No matter, I blame first and foremost our elected officials — starting with the Democrats who control the state Capitol — for being needlessly distracted.

They dedicated huge amounts of time and attention to a litany of controversial policy proposals stuffed into the state budget for expediency. This included mandates on car insurance, changes to liability law, drivers licenses for illegal immigrants and permission for local governments to form regional transit authorities, to cite just a few examples. Some of these items stayed in the budget. Some didn’t. But none of them belonged there.

Milwaukee Public Schools estimates property tax increase of less than 3%

Check out this article from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

Looks like Milwaukee residents can only expect a 2.74% school property tax increase next year. Rep. Garthwaite sure did a great job protecting those property taxpayers. I wonder how much the tax bill is going to increase in Platteville or Boscobel? I bet it is a heck of a lot more than 2.74%.

Garthwaite Devastates Cassville Schools but Spares Milwaukee

DPI just released their School Aid Payment Estimates for the next year.

Rep. Garthwaite voted to cut Cassville’s schools by 15.6%. Conversely, he only voted to cut Milwaukee’s public schools by 0.84%. That is going to mean that the Cassville’s school board will have to raise property taxes by the maximum amount allowable under law. It also means that they will have to go to referendum to ask the voters to raise property taxes even more.

So next time you hear the Greater Wisconsin Committee on the radio thanking Garthwaite for “protecting schools,” just remember that they are talking about Milwaukee Schools. Rep. Garthwaite didn’t do a thing to protect Grant County’s schools or us property taxpayers.

...more to come on Rep. Garthwaite's assault on local K-12 education...