Voters narrowly approve MPS referendum, preliminary results show

Milwaukee voters narrowly approved a referendum Tuesday that will increase property taxes to prevent major budget cuts at Milwaukee Public Schools, according to unofficial results reported Tuesday night.

The measure passed by just 1,720 votes. Officials counted 41,586 votes in favor, about 51% of voters. They counted 39,866 votes against the referendum, about 49% of voters.

“This is a huge victory for the children of Milwaukee," MPS Superintendent Keith Posley said in a statement Tuesday night. "MPS is grateful to the city’s voters for supporting our continued efforts to help students succeed in school and in life.”

The referendum is projected to increase Milwaukee property taxes by about $2.16 per $1,000 of property value. For a $200,000 home, that's an increase of $432. According to MPS projections, the referendum will not cause additional local tax hikes after the first year because it will trigger additional state funding.

The referendum was crafted to allow MPS to gain an additional $140 million for the next school year, then ramp up to $252 million annually by the 2027-28 school year.

Milwaukee voters previously approved an $87 million referendum for MPS in 2020, with support from 78% of voters. That referendum helped MPS keep up with inflation and hire teachers for music, art, physical education and other specialties.

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Teachers union celebrates defeat of MMAC campaign

Vote Yes for MPS campaign, funded by the teachers union and other public schools supporters, declared victory Tuesday night against a well-funded opposition campaign to the referendum, mounted primarily by the Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce (MMAC).

"Milwaukee overcame what is now clearly more than half a million dollars of misleading attack ads from right wing business interests, most of whom do not live in Milwaukee," Ingrid Walker-Henry, president of the Milwaukee Teachers Education Association, said in a statement Tuesday. "Milwaukee will not forget who tried to harm our children and their public schools in this election."

The city was flooded with mailers in recent weeks both for and against the referendum. The Vote Yes for MPS campaign had spent about $277,000 as of March 18. MMAC, meanwhile, dropped over $400,000 campaigning against the referendum.

Many top Democrats voiced support for the referendum, from the mayor to the governor. It was also backed by the NAACP Milwaukee Branch, Leaders Igniting Transformation, Black Leaders Organizing for Communities, Voces de la Frontera, Youth Empowered in the Struggle, Common Ground, Citizen Action of Wisconsin, Power to the Polls Wisconsin, Planned Parenthood and several labor organizations.

The first committee against the referendum came from Milwaukee attorney Dan Adams. With most of its funding from MMAC, the committee sent mailers that showed property owners what their individual tax hikes would be if the referendum passed.

The referendum also faced resistance from the CFC Action Fund, the 501(c)(4) partner organization to City Forward Collective, a Milwaukee nonprofit that advocates for and funds charter schools. CFC Action Fund contributed to the efforts by Adams and MMAC.

In statements Wednesday, MMAC and City Forward Collective called for MPS to share a clear spending plan.

"The MPS plan must be transparent and bold," a statement from MMAC said. "The status quo is unacceptable and a strategic plan to better equip MPS students for the workforce of tomorrow is essential."

All school board members voted in favor of placing the referendum on the spring ballot, except Darryl Jackson, who voted against it, and Aisha Carr, who abstained and later came out against it.

Milwaukee voters turned out for referendum vote

Many voters told the Journal Sentinel on Tuesday they came to the polls primarily to cast a vote on the MPS referendum.

Ducking out of the rain at James Madison Academic Campus, Ricky Bridges said the most important item on the ballot for him was the MPS referendum. He graduated from an MPS school, Washington High.

“They’ve mistreated Milwaukee Public Schools for so many years, and they haven’t given it a chance,” Bridges said. “They say the scores are low, but that’s because they’re not investing the right amount of money into it. We shouldn’t have to ship our kids to other municipalities for them to get a good education.”

Inside the James Madison polling place, chief inspectors Gregory Dorsey and Lionel McAllister said turnout was "way busier" than expected. Asked why he thought turnout was high, Dorsey said the MPS referendum was likely a driver.

“There’s money on the ballot; it hits your pocket,” he said.

That's exactly why Dennis Rageth showed up to vote across town, at Parkside School. He said he opposed the property tax increase that would come with the referendum, which he said for him would be $300 a year.

“I live on a fixed income,” Rageth said. “I pay enough."

The person right behind Rageth at Parkside, James Zarate, had a different take. His children attend an MPS school, Fernwood Montessori. “It’s important to me to support the referendum for schools to get more money,” he said.

MPS principals had prepared 13% cuts in case of failure

Without the referendum money, MPS projected that it would face a $200 million budget shortfall in the next school year because of rising costs. Those costs include: inflationary raises for staff, filling vacant positions and retaining staff who were funded by sunsetting pandemic-relief aid.

The referendum was built to plug most of that shortfall. In preparation for its possible failure, MPS principals were each told to plan to cut their budgets by 13%. The district's central office prepared for a 27% cut. The planned cuts included hundreds of staff positions, including about 207 teachers and 96 paraprofessionals.

Critics of the referendum have said MPS should have made more budget cuts, including closing schools, before turning to taxpayers for more money.

The number of students in MPS has dropped by about 32% since 2004, according to calculations by the Wisconsin Policy Forum. In that time, the district appears to have cut instruction staff by about 37%, according to MPS reports cited by the Forum.

The district hasn't closed as many buildings, reducing its footprint from 178 buildings in 2008 to 150 buildings as of 2022, the Forum found. The district is in the process of updating its long-range facilities plan, but that isn't expected to be complete until October, officials said.

MPS is one of about 100 school districts that called a referendum this year in Wisconsin

School districts in Wisconsin use referendums to ask voters for permission to raise property taxes to provide more school funding, exceeding caps set by the state.

Many school districts are relying on referendums to avoid major budget cuts, as state caps haven't adjusted for inflation. If state lawmakers had raised caps on school funding to keep up with inflation over the last 15 years, MPS officials estimate the district would be getting an extra $210 million each year, about $3,380 per student.

About 82% of Wisconsin's public school districts have turned to referendums in the past three decades, according to Forward Analytics. And nearly a quarter are doing so this year, state data show, a total of 102 school districts in the state.

Contact Rory Linnane at [email protected]. Follow her on X (Twitter) at @RoryLinnane. 

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Voters narrowly approve MPS referendum, preliminary results show