Walker touts $35 million plan to bolster technical education
March 19, 2014
From greenbaypressgazette.com: “Walker touts $35 million plan to bolster technical education” — Legislation signed earlier this week by Gov. Scott Walker allocates $35.4 million to help fund the education of the next generation of workers in Wisconsin.
Walker was at Northeast Wisconsin Technical College in Green Bay on Tuesday discussing the funding designed to bolster technical education at the college and primary education level.
“It’s all about training more the skills needed to fill the jobs today and the ones that will be coming up in the next couple of years, and this is the place to make that happen,” he said.
Walker said Northeast Wisconsin Technical College beefed up its training on computer numeric control machines after the Northeastern Manufacturing Alliance reported a need for CNC operators.
“We want to help campuses like this, and across the state, do more of that in the future,” Walker said. “We’ll also use a portion of this money to help school districts across the state get additional resources to partner for dual enrollment so young people get credit in both the high schools and technical colleges.”
This was Walker’s second stop in the Green Bay area in as many days, and he’s been a frequent visitor to the area in the past month stopping at a number of area businesses to talk about the importance of manufacturing to the state and the need to train skilled workers for immediate and future needs.
A portion of the money will also be used to help employers identify the skill sets disabled residents in the state bring to the workplace.
“The baby boom generation is at, or near, retirement and when that happens there is going to be this huge amount of openings and we’re going to need more skilled workers .. and more people working, period,” he said. “We can’t afford to have anyone who wants to work not be able to work.”
The money is appropriated through the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development’s Wisconsin Fast Forward program.
“We put $15 million in the budget there to do customized worker training, this additional money will be on top of that,” Walker said. “They’ll work directly with technical college campuses… to say, ‘What do you need? Where are your shortages?”
From wxpr.com: “Governor: Tech schools to benefit from surplus” — The state’s budget surplus is likely to be used to help reduce local property taxes by more fully funding Wisconsin’s Technical College system.
During a stop Friday in Rhinelander, Governor Scott Walker says the plan would give direct property tax relief by picking up the majority of technical college costs from the local levy. Walker says the action would not affect local governance. “So it leaves governance up to the way it is so locally it’s determined but we have four school districts where the (levy) will be completely gone…Nicolet(Area Technical College in Rhinelander), Indianhead, Northeast, and Waukesha County Technical. We think that’s a good thing.”
Walker says the most rural technical colleges have unique concerns. “We look to the future, not only to invest in our technical schools to draw down the levy, we’ll be doing more for our schools in rural and high expansion and low density population district to try and of set property taxes as well.”
Officials say the average savings will be around $100 for a home worth $100,000.
Effect of Governor Walker’s plan to change tech college funding
January 24, 2014
From twincities.com: “Scott Walker’s plan would overhaul tech school funding” — Western Wisconsin property taxpayers would save about $15 million under tax cuts proposed by Gov. Scott Walker.
Money from the state’s expected surplus would offset taxes levied by Western Technical College, benefiting homes and businesses in Western’s 11-county district.
But Walker’s proposal is more than a money dump. It would also transform funding methods for Wisconsin’s technical colleges.
Western’s top official lauded the plan but wondered about the future.
“Essentially, it’s shifting the balance,” Western president Lee Rasch said. “If this plan is going to help reduce the impact on property tax, it’s really a wonderful thing.”
The governor’s plan would inject state funding into Wisconsin’s network of tech colleges in 2015 to ease the burden on local taxpayers. The average homeowner would save $89 per $100,000 of property value in Western’s district, which includes La Crosse County.
It’s a savings from this year’s rate, but it’s also lower than taxes were before voters passed an $80 million bonding referendum in 2012, Rasch said. Western’s total levy this year, not including debt, was just more than $25 million. Walker’s plan would cut that to $10.3 million.
“That’s a pretty significant drop,” Rasch said.
Western’s ability to tax property owners would be reduced from $1.50 to 61 cents per $1,000 of property value.
Western and other technical colleges would switch to a K-12-style of financing, Wisconsin Taxpayers Alliance President Todd Berry said. The governor’s proposal would link technical college levies to state aid and impose a cap on all revenue.
Like public schools, low property taxes would depend on continued support from the state. Walker spokesman Tom Evenson said the 2015 aid increase “will repeat in future years.”
“This is not one-time money,” Evenson said.
However, if state aid does dip, property taxes increase.
“That puts a new pressure on the state budget that hadn’t existed before,” Berry said.
Last year, Republican lawmakers recommended removing Wisconsin’s technical colleges from property tax bills.
At the time, Rasch criticized the proposal as a threat to local control. Walker’s proposal is “a good plan,” as long as local campuses still have the flexibility to develop courses and react to regional employment trends, Rasch said.
Walker also wants $35 million extra for training skilled workers. The program that would benefit is managed by the Department of Workforce Development, but some of the new funding would be channeled to technical colleges.
Money would go to eliminating wait-lists for high-demand courses and dual-credit programs, so tech schools could offer more college-level classes at nearby high schools.
Western officials are already considering ways to take advantage of the proposed funding, Rasch said. The college has wait-lists for welding, information technology and health care classes.
“We’re watching it closely,” Rasch said.
Wisconsin Technical College News 