On Tuesday, Vice President Joe Biden voiced his support for the Milwaukee Public Schools Revenue Limit Increase Measure that will appear on April 7 ballots. Biden said the measure “will give public school educators the tools they need to help our students succeed – and they’ll allow us to invest in 21st-century facilities and technology so our children can learn in quality schools.”

The measure would incrementally increase the district’s annual revenue limit by a total of $87 million over four years and maintain that level thereafter with a total estimated additional property tax of $160 per $100,000 of assessed property value (a total tax rate of $1,118 per $100,000 in assessed value). The district’s revenue limit would increase according to the following increments:

• by $57 million for the 2020-2021 school year,
• by $20 million for the 2021-2022 school year,
• by $7 million for the 2022-2023 school year, and
• by $3 million for the 2023-2024 school year.

The 1993-1994 school year was the first year Wisconsin enforced school revenue limits across the state. A revenue limit is the maximum amount of revenue the district is allowed to raise via property taxes according to state law. In 2018, 157 school districts placed similar referendums on Wisconsin ballots, and 90 percent passed.