City of Madison voters passed all of the election’s tax referendums Nov. 6. Voters approved $607 million in two school referendums and another referendum to raise $22 million in order to continue supporting the city’s currently provided public services, according to Dane County.

The Madison Metropolitan School District referendums include one for $507 million for facilities improvement, and another $100 million for the school district’s daily operations for the next four years, MMSD board member Blair Mosner Feltham said.

“In terms of facilities, ten different schools in the MMSD are being updated and are set to look better than before,” Feltham said.

The approved referendums have gone into effect immediately in the school district after they were approved, and some of the investments will go directly toward sustaining the strong programs the schools already have — including extracting and retaining school board staff, continuing the multilingual board and improving middle school programs, Feltham said.

Even with this approved additional funding, state funding still does not meet the public school district’s funding needs, Feltham said.

The debate over public school funding will continue, not just in Madison but across Wisconsin, Feltham said

“To me, a strong city has strong schools — thriving cities have thriving schools,” Feltham said. “It [the referendum] just makes everything possible with school funding.”

Even with the help of tax referendums, public schools still can only make limited financial decisions, Feltham said.

With the passing of the $22 million property tax referendum, the city is able to maintain the funding that is needed to continue their public services, City of Madison District 8 Alder MGR said.

“I’m very grateful for students and the general residents passing the referendum,” MGR said. “It was a very hard ask for anyone in the city to go to anyone, and say that we need to be able to continue these services, and the only way it would be possible to do that is if the property tax score increases.”

The referendum will not provide any additional services — no expansion to the buses, nor infrastructure upgrades, but the tax increase will sustain the city’s current services, MGR said.

Maintaining and potentially expanding services that students heavily rely on is a priority for many members of Madison’s Common Council, MGR said

For students, this entails the bus system. The City wants to ensure the Madison Metro Transit System receives the funding necessary to continue operating and to make any additional improvements as needed, MGR said.

This property tax referendum is considered when the City begins planning the budget Nov. 12, MGR said.

Federal and state grants are another aspect that will be prioritized in the new city budget, along with safety, transportation means and infrastructure operations — some that many students have already seen, MGR said.

The “green fund” renewable energy is a student-led project implemented to create solar panels in campus bus shelters, according to the University of Wisconsin Engineering website. The majority of funds that went toward this came from last year’s city budget, so it will be a similar concept regarding the new budget once it is passed, MGR said.

“I think the overall message taken away from this year’s budget is, don’t expect and bring new shiny objects to show up in the city,” MGR said. “… It’s all about maintaining what we have right now. If the referendum had failed, we would have had to cut so many city services that it actually would have impacted the quality of life for students in such a negative manner, so it’s something that I express a lot of appreciation for revenue for.”