Wisconsin voters approve vast majority of school district referendums

MADISON, Wis. (Civic Media) – The top of the ballot on Tuesday took many of the headlines and plenty of the attention during this fall’s election, but down ballot, voters in over a quarter of Wisconsin’s school districts were being asked a very important question.

Would they be willing to pay more in local taxes to fund their school district’s operations or facility projects?

For the vast majority of school districts, the answer was “yes” as 92 of the state’s 120 districts with a question on the ballot had their ballot measures approved.

All told, 108 of 138 referendum questions were approved for a total of just over $3.4 billion in additional local property taxes for areas where the measures were passed.

Why are local taxpayers being asked for more money to pay for schools?

Wisconsin Superintendent Jill Underly said in a statement that the referendums were proof of under-investment by the state Legislature.

“Too many communities were forced to vote Tuesday whether to increase property taxes just so their local schools can pay staff, heat and cool their buildings, and provide a quality education,” Underly said. “Wisconsin families value public education and understand our schools need sustainable funding to keep the lights on and provide a high-quality education to our kids. At the same time, they understand this responsibility should not disproportionately fall on local taxpayers.”

Underly – as well as Gov. Tony Evers and Democrats in the state Legislature – have been critical of Republicans that refuse to acknowledge the issue facing school districts in Wisconsin.

In 2023, Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers issued a partial veto that perpetually adds $325 per student per year to the revenue limit. That partial veto is being challenged in court, with the Wisconsin Supreme Court hearing arguments earlier this month.

Evers’ partial veto got national attention, and was criticized by state Republican leaders. The lawsuit challenging the move says the law’s intent was only for a two-year budget cycle and that the governor is prohibited from certain methods of line-item vetoing. The governor’s attorneys argued that Evers acted within the law.

The largest measure on ballots in the state was in Madison, where the Madison Metropolitan School District asked two questions. The first was a vast facilities project to address failing school infrastructure at 10 buildings at a price tag of $507 million. The second was a recurring (permanent) operational referendum for programming and staff pay to the tune of $100 million. Madison voters approved both questions overwhelmingly by tens of thousands of votes.

Where did voters pass ballot measures for schools?

While Madison enjoyed healthy margins, 21 of the 138 referendum questions on ballots statewide this fall were decided by fewer than 100 votes. 38 were decided by fewer than 200 votes. Of the 30 referendum questions to fail, half of them were by 191 or fewer votes, showing just how close the school funding issue is in the minds of taxpayers during an election that saw conservatives win the majority of elections in Wisconsin.

Presidential elections typically bring higher success rates to referendums, and that played out across the state. Large facility projects overwhelmingly passed, 51 to 7 (88% success rate), with two of the seven that did not pass failing by 170 or fewer votes.

Where schools saw tougher work was in seeking more money to pay for programming or staff. Non-recurring referendums, which increase the tax levy over a fixed amount of time, only saw 40 of 58 questions approved (69% success rate). Recurring referendums, which are a permanent increase to the local tax levy, saw 16 of 21 approved (76% success rate).

Waunakee had a combination operational referendum that had both recurring and non-recurring parts to it. That measure passed by over 1,400 votes.

Where did voters reject additional school funding?

Large facilities projects were soundly rejected in Kiel, Sheboygan Falls, Baraboo, Tomah, and Arrowhead school districts, where each project had a price tag ranging from $67 million to $262.2 million.

Voters approved projects of over $50 million in over a dozen districts, including Madison, Green Bay, Janesville, Sparta, Marshfield, La Crosse, and Wauwatosa.

For districts seeking permanent increases to the tax levy, the measures were shot down by a wide margin in Hudson, Elkhorn, and Platteville, the latter of which recently had a major facilities referendum pass. Smaller districts Bangor and Cuba City saw narrow losses, but administrators there said that they will need to trim some offerings from their budgets in order to balance them in the wake of the failed referendum.

A wide variety of districts saw non-recurring referendums – tax levy increases over a handful of years – fail, but none by impressively wide margins, as the largest margin of failure was under 800 votes. Most of the districts that saw their measures fail were based in small- to medium-sized cities in rural areas, including Monroe, Reedsburg, Prairie du Chien, Waterford, Dodgeville, Ashland, and Viroqua, the last of which saw its measure fail by just 30 votes, the closest voting margin in the fall election.

An example of how close voters came to approving even more referendums in an election that saw conservative wins up and down the ballot (conservative platforms typically discourage higher taxes, as well as recent legislative policies that seek greater investment in private education over public): Of the 21 failed operational referendums (the ones that are for programming and staff), only two were by more than 10% of the total votes cast.

A full list of referendums that passed or failed is available on the DPI’s website.

How many schools go to referendum?

“The state has a massive budget surplus, and school districts are telling us they need more resources,” Jill Underly, Wisconsin Superintendent, said in September during her State of Education speech. “Most public school districts have gone, are going, or will be forced to go to referendum just to make ends meet.”

The DPI said that 100 of the state’s 421 districts get at least 10% of their revenue limit from non-recurring operational referendum through the 2022-23 school year, with the number expected to grow in the next fiscal year. The previous year, there were only 80 districts at that threshold, and 10 years ago, just 36 districts were north of the 10% mark. 14 districts get at least a quarter of their funding from referenda.

Through this year’s Spring Election, since the option to ask to exceed revenue limits was given to districts in the 1990’s, 357, or 85%, of districts have tried for an operational referendum. 20% of the state’s district have used operational referendum questions six times or more. All time, voters have approved 877 of 1,513 operating referenda through 2023, or 58%, according to data from the DPI.

All told, between both the spring primary and spring election in 2024, districts sought $1.67 billion in additional local taxes to pay for school services, teachers, and facilities. Added to that is nearly $4.28 billion in the fall primary and election for a 2024 total of $5.95 billion in referendum requests by public school districts in Wisconsin.

Does the state have any additional funding that it can provide to schools?

According to the Wisconsin Department of Administration, the state ended the 2024 fiscal year with a $4.6 billion surplus. The state’s so-called “rainy day fund” also increased to a record $1.9 billion.

The state’s surplus funds have been targeted by a wide range of interests over the past several budget cycles, with Republicans pushing for tax relief and Democrats seeking investments in education, infrastructure, and child care.

This year’s announcement came in at over $820 million over estimates, leading to calls from the state Department of Public Instruction to fund several different education-based initiatives.

Underly called for a $304 million investment in mental health services for children. Over half of Wisconsin high school students reported having at least one mental health challenge in the past year, with numbers higher for women.

Hold on – what are the different types of referendums?

Wisconsin has 421 school districts, and nearly 200 of them will have gone to referendum in 2024.

Referendums come in three different varieties: recurring operational, non-recurring operational, and issue debt.

Issue debt is the simplest to explain: Districts ask to issue bonds and pay back the debt and interest for the purpose of capital projects. These tend to be the most expensive price tags, but the effects are spread out over 20 years, keeping mill rates reasonable for local property owners.

Operational referendums are meant to cover expenses such as staff, programming, and other non-capital items. Recurring referendums are a permanent increase in the local tax levy, while non-recurring are fixed over a set number of years. The benefit to the latter is that districts can re-evaluate needs each cycle, but the downside is asking voters each time to approve the measure.

What are the financial factors in leading to so many referendums?

In Wisconsin, several factors are at play as to why education funding has been on the decline for several years.

The first is that revenue caps were put in place on districts in the 1990’s as a means of protecting property taxpayers from never-ending increases.

The second is that per-pupil funding increases were de-coupled from inflation metrics as part of the lead-up to Act 10, meaning it was up to the state legislature to decide how much money would be added each cycle.

A third factor is that funding is directly tied to student enrollment, and with the majority of districts reporting declining enrollment, that means less money to pay staff and maintain buildings.

Finally, decisions by the state legislature and Gov. Evers have resulted in taxpayer money going into private school vouchers, to the tune of $225.5 million for the Wisconsin Parental Choice Program (and an additional $40.8 million for the Racine Parental Choice Program) and $32 million for new independent charter schools.

In the meantime, districts that are dealing with issues like declining enrollment still need to afford schools, or for larger districts, facility consolidation, and there are few other levers for districts to pull for revenue. Public schools can’t charge tuition, and while some can receive grants to help with things like STEM facilities or safety projects, there are no other ways for a district to afford the large costs associated with building or renovating facilities.

Republicans in Wisconsin have long advocated for funding private school vouchers, and the latest budget shows the compromise between Gov. Evers and legislative Republicans in increasing revenue caps for public school students while also increasing the amount of taxpayer money going to private schools.

Democrats, who are typically backed by education-affiliated advocacy groups and associations, seek more resources for public schools specifically and have typically voted against funding vouchers for private schools.

What is ESSER and why does it matter that it’s over?

Federal pandemic relief funding brought $2.4 billion to Wisconsin schools the past few years. The program, Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief, or ESSER, sought to help making up for educational losses during the COVID-19 pandemic

Schools had wide authority to use the funds in any way they saw fit, whether it meant hiring additional staff or establishing programs to help students. Some districts used the money as a way to backfill budget gaps caused by declining enrollment and the increased cost of services. Others hired staff to help reduce class sizes and offer additional courses or resources.

For districts that were using ESSER funds to patch budget holes, the end of the program meant that those deficits would need to be dealt with again. That’s led to a sharp increase in recurring or non-recurring operational referendums — money used to pay for things like staff and utilities — with 82 such questions on fall election ballots.

For other districts, it marked the end of some of the flexibility in staffing they had enjoyed the past few years, with those workers either being absorbed into open positions or moved into the regular budget. For a few, creative programs that dealt with everything from learning how to read to mental heath care to child care came to an end or were otherwise brought into the operating budget.

School districts were required to spend the rest of their ESSER funds by September, meaning that for most of the 2024-25 school year, budgets are put together with that revenue missing from the bottom line.

Whether or not districts will continue their specific programs largely is up to how they set their budgets, and for many schools, keeping popular pandemic-era programs up and running means seeking additional money through referendum.

How do I learn more about referendums where I live?

Chances are, if you live in Wisconsin, you will be seeing a school referendum question on your ballot, whether it’s in the past two years or in the coming year or two. Over 90% of districts in Wisconsin have had at least one referendum since the revenue limit system was put in place three decades ago.

Perhaps the most important piece of information that voters seek is the overall change to their tax bill, which is usually reflected in an estimated mill rate for the following year. The mill rate is simply the total tax levy and cost of the referendum, if passed, divided by the total value of property in the school district.

Mill rates typically rise if a referendum is passed, meaning district property tax payers will see a higher bill. Usually, this amounts to a few hundred dollars per year on a typical tax bill, but that greatly varies depending on the size of the district, the value of property in that district, and the size of the referendum.

Rates also go up and down as property values and school district tax levies, which are largely tied to enrollment, change.

Districts are required to provide public information about the tax impact of referendums, and nearly all of them hold informational sessions in person, online, or both. If your district has a referendum, there’s a great chance that your school district website has a page dedicated to it.

If the district does not have a page or any information easily accessible online, administration, such as the school superintendent, can answer questions from the public about the overall impact of any referendum.

Impacts go the other way as well. If a referendum does not pass, schools still need to balance their budget, which can come in the form of staff or programming cuts, or eliminating extra-curricular activities such as athletics or art. At its most extreme, districts would have to consider consolidating with neighboring districts, a multi-year process that historically raises taxes for the people in the district that is dissolving into neighboring ones.

What can we do in our own district?

Get involved in your local discussion and school communities. Many times, referendum questions are posed as agenda items months before committees are formed, surveys are mailed, and the tax impacts are calculated.

School boards are not monoliths – they are locally-elected officials that largely come from non-educational backgrounds. They are typically elected to three-year terms, and it takes half of that time to work towards putting a ballot measure in place.

In many cases, local stakeholders are invited to be a part of the committees that also include administration and board members. It’s a unique way to gain insight on the major needs of a district and for taxpayers to see how the district goes about seeking additional funding.

Unlike a business, which can simply increase its cost of services to cover expenses, public schools can only generate revenue through local tax levies and state aid, with a modicum of support coming from federal dollars and a patchwork of state and federal grants for very specific projects. With state aid dollars lagging far behind inflation for nearly two decades, and the expiration of federal funding from the pandemic, big holes are showing up in local budgets.

Almost exclusively, the only mechanism districts have to balance the budget without cutting staff, programming, or opportunities in advanced placement courses, athletics, or arts is to seek an increased tax levy. The “pain points” of any district are on full display in annual budget meetings and referendum discussions, which are done in public during board meetings.

For more information, you can read Civic Media’s preview of the referendum cycle this fall. You can also check your local school district’s website for information on facilities, budgets, and who your local board members are.

If you are interested in running for school board, paperwork can be filed next month, with primaries to be held in February and elections in April in nearly every district statewide. For more on that process, you can visit the Wisconsin Elections Commission website. For more on who represents you, what district you are in, and your voter registration information, you can visit MyVote Wisconsin.

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Jimmie Kaska is a member of the Boscobel Area School District school board. None of the information provided here reflects the position of the Boscobel Board of Education, its administration, or district employees. This article is intended for editorial purposes.