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Effects of the Revenue Caps
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Efforts to Reduce Property Taxes
Revenue Controls
In 1993, Wisconsin Act 16 became law. The purpose of Act 16 was to place limits on school budgets so that Wisconsin’s home and business owners would experience "property tax relief." The legislation imposed limits on the total amount of money that public school districts would be allowed to raise through a combination of state aids and the local property tax. The annual increase in a district’s revenue per pupil was to be limited to a specific dollar amount ($190 in 1993-94) or the rate of inflation times the per pupil cost. Beginning with the 1994-95 school year, the per pupil dollar amount was to be adjusted for inflation.
The original legislation was changed in 1995.(5 )The revenue controls were made permanent, and the per pupil increases were set at a fixed dollar amount ($200 per student in 1995-96 and $206 in 1996-97 and beyond).
The Qualified Economic Offer
Wisconsin Act 16 (1993) also changed the state’s mediation-arbitration law for teachers. The law stipulates that if the combined salary and fringe benefit offer of the employer is at least 3.8%, this constitutes a Qualified Economic Offer, which is not subject to mediation-arbitration.(6)
For administrators who are not covered by the collective bargaining agreement, the total amounts available for increases in salaries and fringe benefits can be one of the following: (1) 3.8% of the total prior year’s costs of salaries and fringe benefits for such employees, or (2) the average total percent increase in total salary and fringe benefit increases per employee provided by the school district for the most recent 12-month period ending on June 30.
Posted February 4, 1998
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