(The Center Square) – Seemingly defying recent polls showing voters’ opposition to property tax increases, Wisconsinites approved a record number of school district referendums totaling $4.4 billion in 2024, according to a report from the Wisconsin Policy Forum.
Unofficial election results indicate that voters approved 169 out of 241 school ballot referenda held across spring and fall elections, totaling $4.4 billion. These results represent both the most school referendums ever held in a single year and the most money ever authorized in new funds in a single year, breaking the old record of $2.7 billion in 2020.
Although voters approved a record number of ballot questions this year – a passage rate of 70.1% for all of 2024 – it was the lowest passage rate since 2014 in a midterm or presidential election year, when voters are statistically the most likely to approve school referendums.
This tracks with a recent Marquette Law School poll that indicated voter support for increasing school district funding has fallen to its lowest level since 2013.
Following the election results, state Superintendent Jill Underly said she plans to ask for more than $4 billion in new state spending on the state’s schools. She has pointed to the state’s $4.6 billion general fund balance after last fiscal year as a way to fund the spending, arguing that using those funds could reduce the number of property tax-raising referendums in the coming years.
The move would deplete 65% of the state’s budget surplus, which critics have deemed as irresponsible.
Part of the reason for the sharp increase in school funding requests is due to the high rate of inflation exceeding increases in state per pupil revenue limits during 2021 and 2022, the WPF reported. School districts in Wisconsin are subject to a 1993 state law that places limits on how much local governments can increase property taxes each year, so schools must go to taxpayers directly through ballot referendums.
