October 3, 2005 Letter to Clerks

Date:October 3, 2005

To: School District Clerks

From: David Carlson, Director
School Financial Services Team

Re: Fall School District Certification of 2005 Values - Tax Apportionment
Computer Exemption Aid Information
New Tax Levy Certification and Reporting Process

Fall School District Certification of 2005 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 2005 Values - Tax Apportionment" to be used by school district clerks to certify the 2005-2006 school district tax levy to municipal clerks. Districts will use the values with TID excluded (TID-Out) for apportionment of the school levy.

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” on the left hand scan bar or directly at http://dpi.wisconsin.gov/sfs/xls/revlim06.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 2005-2006 general aid payment.

New Tax Levy Certification and Reporting Process

All school districts will use a newly revised tax levy certification and reporting process. To certify the district’s levy to municipalities and to report levy data to both the Department of Public Instruction and the Department of Revenue, districts will use a new Internet based reporting program entitled “PI 401, Tax Levies.”

This new report is located on each district’s “Financial Data Home” page link within the “School Finance Reporting Portal.” Specific instructions for the location of this new report can also be found on the School Financial Services Team home web page under the link, “Reporting Instructions – All Reports.”

Below are the main reporting and certification process steps:

After logging into the program and completing the contact information page, the district will input the tax levy by fund. Review your district’s data carefully. The amounts entered should agree with and total to the amounts on lines 18 (fund 10 levy), 14b (fund 38 non referendum debt), 14c (fund 41 capital expansion), 15a (fund 39 referendum approved debt), 15b (fund 80 community service) and 15c (prior year levy chargeback) of the district’s planning revenue limit worksheet.

The next step will be to view a reasonability report that compares the current year levy with the prior year levy.

If the reasonability report is correct the district submits the levy data to the department and then prints out the PI 401 tax levy certification page. The district is required to sign and maintain this page on file in the district. The PI 401 tax levy data is used by the department to determine district compliance with the revenue limit statute, s. 121.92 Wis. Stats.

Note that the levy by municipality has already been calculated. Please review this data for accuracy. This information will be electronically submitted by the Department of Public Instruction to the Department of Revenue on the district’s behalf. There is no longer a paper form that is submitted to the Department of Revenue.

After printing the certification page, the district will then print the PI 1508 Tax Levy Certification forms that have already been populated with the apportioned levy to each of the district’s municipalities. Districts will then sign and send these completed forms to their municipalities.

The due date for the PI 401 is November 6, the same due date for certifying levies to municipalities (s. 120.17(8)(a) Wis. Stats.). However, should the district need to amend their levies, the PI 401 report will remain open until November 15. Should you have questions about this new report, please contact one of the team staff listed below.

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 2005 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