In the midst of this fall election, Wisconsin residents could be forgiven for thinking that only the federal government really matters in the voting this Nov. 5. The fiercely fought races for both president and U.S. Senate occupy so much space in campaign ads — and to some extent, news coverage — that some voters might conclude that their state and local races are of little importance. Continue reading…
Wisconsin voters are seeing record numbers of school property tax referenda on their ballots in 2024. Each referendum requests voter authority to exceed state-imposed limits on the amount by which local governments may increase their property tax levies.
This is a record year for the number of school referenda placed on ballots since at least 2000. No other year exceeded 200 ballot questions, but 2024 will have featured over 240 separate referenda spread across the spring and fall elections.
In April, Milwaukee voters narrowly approved a Milwaukee Public Schools property tax referendum of more than $250 million. And this November in Madison, voters will decide on a pair of referenda from the Madison Metropolitan School District totaling more than $600 million, as well as a $22 million city of Madison referendum.
For years, the Forum has chronicled the increasing frequency with which Wisconsin school districts, and more recently municipalities, have posed these ballot questions to their residents. In addition to our research on this issue for both Milwaukee and the state at large, we’re holding a free public event on Oct. 17 at the Edgewater Hotel to discuss the Madison referenda. Click here to learn more about the event or to register to attend!
Recent months brought fresh updates to our portfolio of data tools, solidifying the Forum’s role as the go-to source for interactive data to help Wisconsinites better understand the finances of their school districts and state and local governments.
In the third quarter, we released updates to our Municipal DataTool, School DataTool, and Property Values and Taxes DataTool. The Municipal DataTool provides fully interactive data on taxes, spending, and finances for each of Wisconsin’s 604 cities and villages; our Property Values and Taxes tool features data for each of Wisconsin’s 72 counties and more than 1,800 cities, villages, and towns. The School DataTool gives users data for each of the state’s public school districts on metrics relating to student demographics, participation, performance and outcomes, as well as school district finances.
Recently we also have expanded our custom data tool offerings. In April, we released a data tool for the Sheboygan Area School District, which provides interactive data and compares the district to a custom set of its peers.
Later this year, we plan to update our Metro Milwaukee Innovation DataTool, which tracks the region’s performance over the last decade, and relative to national peers, on indicators tied to innovation, entrepreneurship, and economic growth.
At this year’s national conference of the Governmental Research Association (GRA) in Asheville, North Carolina, the Forum received the “Best Digital Communication Award” for our Revolving Classroom Doors report on teacher turnover in Wisconsin. The award specifically recognized the interactive data portal we published in August 2023 to share findings from the report, which the judges lauded as “informative and very accessible.”
The Forum also won an “Outstanding Policy Achievement Award” for our work that contributed to the passage of Wisconsin Act 12, which authorized a new sales tax for the City of Milwaukee and a sales tax increase for Milwaukee County to help address looming fiscal cliffs both governments faced. Under the state law, the additional taxes come with stipulations on how the revenues can be spent on and requirements for both governments to reform their pension systems. The judges were impressed with our “persistence for more than 15 years to inform the public and policymakers of risks to the fiscal health of the City of Milwaukee and Milwaukee County. The combination of excellent research and outreach led to a major revenue solution and greater stability for both communities.”
The Wisconsin Policy Forum is one of 28 members of the GRA, which is comprised of organizations and individuals engaged in public policy, governmental, and civic research throughout the United States. Forum Deputy Research Director Sara Shaw currently serves on the GRA’s Board of Directors.
City and County Finances: In the coming weeks, we will publish our annual assessments of the proposed budgets for three of the state’s largest local governments: the cities of Milwaukee and Madison, and Milwaukee County. We will also produce a separate report examining options for enhanced collaboration between Milwaukee County and local fire departments on emergency medical services (EMS) and their potential to improve services and reduce costs.
Transportation Funding: Wisconsin faces longstanding and well-documented transportation funding challenges, with heavy reliance on gas tax revenues that have stagnated and a growing practice of bolstering the state’s transportation fund through transfers from its general fund. We will explore whether Wisconsin can and should continue on this path and consider potential options for increasing user fees that could help to support state transportation programs, drawing on examples from other states that have addressed similar challenges.
Milwaukee Education Ecosystem: We will follow up August’s publication of Roll Call: A Landscape Review of the Students, Financing, and Performance of Milwaukee’s K-12 Schools with an analysis of promising practices and innovations for Milwaukee’s K-12 ecosystem. The report will draw upon data and insights both from schools within Milwaukee that are beating the city’s odds and from other places nationally experiencing more success than Milwaukee. The report will conclude by laying out policy options for potential next steps.
Milwaukee County Juvenile Justice System: Our 2023 report, Under Pressure, examined how the pandemic and subsequent challenges have impacted Milwaukee County’s adult justice system, and we have now turned to its juvenile justice system. This research will explore a number of issues, including whether juvenile arrests have declined at similar levels as adult arrests, whether backlogs of court cases exist in the children’s court, and the outcomes of a dramatic reduction in the number of county youth housed at state-run institutions over the past decade.
Our latest Forum Friday virtual discussion found significant areas of agreement on an issue that’s affecting red and blue communities alike: the soaring cost of housing.
The event featured Madison Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway, Washington County Executive Josh Schoemann, and Teig Whaley-Smith, Chief Alliance Executive of Milwaukee’s Community Development Alliance.
Forum staff kicked things off with an overview of our recent housing research, including our finding that Wisconsin housing prices have risen much faster than incomes since 2017. Also discussed was our look at Wisconsin’s recent trends in housing permitting, a key metric linked to housing construction.
The discussion underscored a consensus from leaders of communities of different sizes – as well as political affiliations — that there is a need to accelerate the pace of housing development in general, and affordable housing development specifically. It also highlighted efforts in all three communities to make it easier to build housing through measures such as zoning and land use changes, as well as financing strategies such as tax increment financing and affordable housing development funds.
Our next Forum Friday will focus on Wisconsin’s Medicaid expansion debate. There’s still time to register; we hope you can join us!
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How has your membership in the Wisconsin Policy Forum been a resource for you and your organization?
Being a Wisconsin Policy Forum (WPF) member is truly rewarding. I appreciate the organization’s focus on researching community issues, analyzing data, and proposing practical solutions that drive public policy. Interacting with diverse board members provides valuable insights on research topics and findings, helping us determine the next steps. The strong leadership within WPF has earned the community’s trust by consistently providing unbiased research, making it a privilege to be part of this esteemed organization.
Contact Info: John Huggett, Vice President – Central Operations
john.huggett@boldt.com
Each fall, the Forum is delighted to welcome two new graduate student fellows to contribute to our research. This year they are our Norman Gill Fellow, Vilma Fermin, and our Todd Berry fellow, Rose Melton. Please join us in welcoming them to the Forum!
During her fellowship year, Vilma will be completing her master’s degree in educational policy at Marquette University; Rose will be completing her master’s in urban planning at UW-Milwaukee.
Vilma’s research will focus on how Wisconsin schools used the federal relief funds they received during the COVID-19 pandemic. Rose will study renewable energy and energy efficiency initiatives being undertaken by local governments in Wisconsin.
The fellowship positions are named in honor of Norman Gill and Todd Berry for their long-term commitment to improving government decision making and quality of life in our state. Norman Gill was executive director of the Milwaukee-based Citizens Government Research Bureau (later the Public Policy Forum) for over 40 years. Todd Berry spent more than 20 years leading our other predecessor organization, the former Madison-based Wisconsin Taxpayers Alliance.
For more than a century, the Forum and its predecessor organizations have produced impartial research and analysis that has generated greater understanding of complex policy issues and improved the quality of public policy decision-making in Wisconsin. In addition to maintaining your ongoing membership, we ask you to consider making a donation to further facilitate our ambitious research and program agenda. Please contact Alyssa Doman, our Membership and Operations Coordinator, at adoman@wispolicyforum.org or by phone at (414) 435-1105 to discuss how your charitable gift can advance our shared goal of producing objective, independent research to address state and local issues throughout Wisconsin.
In these polarized times, we are especially grateful for the support of our members and sponsors. Thank you for reading our research, attending or tuning in for our events, participating in our committee meetings, and maintaining your membership with us.
We are supported by hundreds of corporations, nonprofits, local governments, school districts, and individuals from across the state of Wisconsin. The following members provide particularly generous support that ensures Wisconsin will continue to benefit from having one of the nation’s most successful nonpartisan, independent public policy research organizations.
