In fiscal year 1973, the first year of the referendum levy, one school district had an excess levy totaling $25,400. By fiscal year 1980, 95 districts had referendum levies in effect, totaling $12.3 million. From 1980 forward, with few exceptions, revenue raised through voter-approved referendum has increased each year, and the percentage of districts with voter-approved levies also increased, rising to nearly 90 percent of all districts during fiscal year 2002. This trend is illustrated in Figure 1, which shows the percentage of districts with a referendum each year since fiscal year 1980. As shown in Figure 1, for fiscal year 2003 there was a substantial reduction in voter-approved levies, due to the conversion of the first $415 per pupil of each district’s referendum to a $415 increase in the basic formula, a change enacted by the Legislature during the 2001 Legislative session. A similar conversion, of $100 per pupil for fiscal year 1993, marks the only other year in which the percentage of school districts with referendums declined.
[See Figure 1: Percent of Districts with Referendum]
Subsequent to the significant reduction in referendums that followed the $415 conversion, a record 197 districts presented voters with 207 referendum questions during calendar year 2001, and 136 districts had at least one success. In contrast, in calendar year 2006, there were only 84 attempts to pass referendums, and only 33 were successful. In 2005, the percent of districts with referendum authority increased to 87 percent. Since then, that percentage has remained the same.
Fiscal year 1993 was when the state started paying equalization aid to school districts based on their property wealth. Figure 2 shows total referendum revenue, including the mix of referendum aid, levy and tax base replacement aid since 1980. Referendum revenue was $283.1 million in fiscal year 1993, and reached $544.1 million in fiscal year 2002. The 2001 legislative change, converting $415 of referendum revenue into basic formula revenue, reduced that amount to $293.0 million, but within a year, following the new elections in calendar year 2001, fiscal year 2004 referendum revenue was $424.4 million. Current projections indicate that total referendum revenue will rise above the 2002 level in 2007, with total referendum revenue of $585 million, and increase again in 2008 to $627 million.
[See Figure 2: Total Referendum Revenue]
Table 1 shows the number and percent of districts that made referendum levies and the amount of revenue raised by those levies, and the amount of referendum equalization aid and tax base replacement aid paid by the state. In addition, Table 1 shows the percentage increase each year of referendum revenue on a total basis and on a per student basis (using students in Average Daily Membership as the student count). Referendum revenue decreased in fiscal years 1995 and 2001, one-time occurrences as a result of a portion of referendum revenue being offset by a concurrent, equal, increase in the basic general education formula (see 1993 and 2001 legislative changes summary).
[See Table 1: Referendum History]
The Operating Levy Referendum as a Percent of Total Revenue Is Growing
Until the $415 referendum offset in fiscal year 2003, referendum revenue had grown relatively steadily to be a larger part of overall education revenue, although the rate of growth fell considerably during the 1990s. As shown in Table 2 and Figure 3, during fiscal year 1984, referendum revenue made up 2.9 percent of total education revenue, and by fiscal year 1992, had increased to equal 6.8 percent of total education revenue. That rate grew slowly through the late 1990s and into 2002, when referendum revenue as a percent of total education revenue increased to its highest level, 7.9 percent. With the $415 referendum offset in fiscal year 2003, the percentage dropped to 4.4 percent, but the new elections in calendar year 2001 and 2002 have increased the percentage sharply to 5.6 percent for fiscal year 2004.
[See Figure 3: Referendum Revenue as a Percent of Total Revenue]
Note: Total education revenue includes all sources of school district revenue, including state appropriations and tax relief aids, local revenue, such as local levies and local fees, as well as federal funds.
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