October 6, 2004 Letter to District Administrators

Date: October 6, 2004

To: School District Administrators

From: David Carlson, Director
School Financial Services Team

Re: Fall School District Certification of 2004 Values
Tax Apportionment
Computer Exemption Aid Information
PI 1508 - Tax Levy Certification Form
SD 401 Levies Report

Fall School District Certification of 2004 Values - Tax Apportionment

The Wisconsin Department of Revenue (DOR) certifies two versions of equalized property values to the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction for each calendar year. The property values are provided to the Department of Public Instruction for distribution to school districts. In the fall DOR certifies values to be used for the tax apportionment of school levy. In the spring DOR certifies equalized property values for the purpose of school aid computation.

Enclosed is your school district's copy of the "Fall School District Certification of 2004 Values-Tax Apportionment" to be used by school district clerks to certify the 2004-2005 school district tax levy to municipal clerks. Use the values with TID excluded (TID-Out) for apportionment of the school levy. As a caution, do not use the value that includes the value of Exempt Computers.

Computer Exemption Aid Information

The Department of Revenue also certifies an additional property value in the fall. This value, TID Out Exempt Computer Value, is the value of computers within your district that is exempt from the school district property tax. Districts will use this value to calculate a state aid payment that is intended to replace the tax money that has been lost due to the property tax exempt status of computers. It is important for districts to calculate the amount of this aid payment because it does affect your district's maximum fund 10 levy under revenue limits. In essence, the exempt computer aid replaces a portion of your district's maximum allowable fund 10 levy.

The School Financial Services Team has developed an Excel revenue limit spreadsheet that will calculate computer exemption aid upon input of tax apportionment and computer exempt values. It is located on the team's website under "Worksheets (Executable)" on the left hand scan bar or directly at dpi.wi.us/sfs/xls/revlim05.xls .

It is important to note that districts should not attempt to calculate their computer exemption aid until they have calculated what they believe will be their final revenue limit computation which includes the department's October 15 certification of the district's 2004-2005 general aid payment.

PI 1508 - Tax Levy Certification Form

To certify school district levies to municipalities, districts are to use the PI 1508, Tax Levy Certification Form. The levy certification form must be completed, and filed with the clerk of each municipality on or prior to November 6, 2004. PI 1508 is available on the team's website in Excel and Adobe Acrobat (.pdf) Reader formats. They are located at dpi.wi.us/sfs/levycert.html. As a courtesy, we recommend that you enclose a copy of your certified values for each municipal clerk when certifying your levy.

SD 401 Levies Report

Districts will be receiving the PC-401 Report from the Department of Revenue on which districts will report levy information to DOR. For the 2004-2005 school year districts will be required to complete table SD 401. This table will identify district fund levies used by the Department of Public Instruction to calculate district compliance with revenue limits. The levy data on SD 401 must match the levy data on the district's PI 1504 2004-2005 Budget Report.

Should you have additional questions, please contact one of the following:

Brad Adams	(608) 267-3752	bradley.adams@dpi.wi.gov
Karen Kucharz	(608) 267-9707	karen.kucharz@dpi.wi.gov
Jerry Landmark	(608) 266-3464	jerome.landmark@dpi.wi.gov

Enc: Fall School District Certification of 2004 Values - Tax Apportionment

For questions about this information, contact dpifin@dpi.wi.gov (608) 267-9114

Last updated on 2/25/2008 12:03:50 PM