Budget committee to bring lower tax-levy proposal to full board, using $2 million in fund equity

The Waunakee Community School District Budget Committee agreed Oct. 6 to present a tax-levy proposal at a special board meeting at the end of October that uses $2 million in Fund 39 equity to reduce the levy the district will set this fall.

The committee’s business manager said bond counsel Quarles & Brady recommended “make it clear that we’re utilizing $2,000,000 in Fund 39 fund equity in order to meet the April 1, debt service payments,” because the board would be approving a levy in October that must legally cover all of 2026 debt-service payments even though any refinancing decision could come later.

That guidance, the manager said, allows the district to present a levy in October that looks like the second draft of the budget (about a 6 percent increase in the earlier draft) while giving the board months to decide whether to refinance outstanding debt, use additional referendum…