Weekly Fiscal Facts are provided by the Wisconsin Policy Forum, the state’s leading resource for nonpartisan state and local government research and civic education. The Wisconsin Public Policy Forum logo can be downloaded here.
Wisconsin’s short-term fiscal health improves, but still behind most states
Gains in Wisconsin’s short-term fiscal measures since the Great Recession are a positive sign for state finances. Despite those gains, however, Wisconsin ranks in the bottom half of states on short-term health in the most recent year for which data are available.
Over the past several years, researchers at George Mason University have compiled the same measures for all states. Their 2017 study used information from fiscal 2015 and applied three standard measures of short-term fiscal health to create a single indicator, on which Wisconsin ranked 38th. Among neighboring states, Minnesota (24th), Iowa (28th), and Michigan (36th) all placed ahead of Wisconsin, while Illinois ranked 48th.
This information is a service of the Wisconsin Policy Forum, the state’s leading resource for nonpartisan state and local government research and civic education.
