Former New York Mayor Ed Koch once remarked after an electoral defeat, “The voters have made their decision, and now they must be punished for it.”
A little more than a month after voters handed control of the Menomonee Falls School Board to a new liberal majority, the board is already moving aggressively to ram through a spending referendum that will translate directly into higher property taxes for families in the Waukesha County suburb.
On April 7, 2026, voters elected Becky Derlein, Emily Kant Schlimme, and Steve Taylor to three-year and two-year terms on the seven-member board, ousting conservative incumbent Joel Woppert and rejecting other candidates backed by Moms for Liberty and local Republican groups. The three newcomers gave liberals a clear majority for the first time in years.
The leftist board’s first act is to blow up the district’s reputation for responsible financial management. According to the board’s Long-Term Planning agenda posted this week, the new majority is expediting discussions on an operating referendum. Previous conservative-led boards had avoided such referendums, instead prioritizing fiscal discipline, record-low tax rates, and balanced budgets without additional taxpayer funding.
The pattern is familiar across Wisconsin: liberal school boards, once in power, reward their friends who put them in power by quickly turning to referendums and tax increases to override revenue limits and fund bigger budgets, staff expansions, and programs that conservative predecessors managed without. In Menomonee Falls, the previous board had kept the tax levy in check while maintaining strong academics, a record the incoming majority appears eager to abandon.
The timing of these actions highlights the new board’s priorities. Instead of waiting to assess broader community input, the board is preparing to present a referendum to voters soon after the election.
The board has not yet finalized referendum language or a ballot date, but the agenda item signals the discussion is underway and could lead to a November 2026 or spring 2027 vote. Under Wisconsin law, operating referendums allow districts to exceed state revenue limits for recurring expenses — the kind of recurring tax increase that hits homeowners year after year.
School board races matter precisely because they control the single largest line item on most property tax bills. The Menomonee Falls flip offers a textbook example: voters hand power to the left, and the first order of business becomes finding new ways to extract more money from families already squeezed by Evers-era high cost of living and inflation.
District residents still have time to make their voices heard at upcoming board meetings and through public comment. But the early signal from the new majority is unmistakable: the voters spoke in April, and the punishment phase has already begun.
