Fiscal Facts

As COVID-19 upended the lives of students around the state, schools across Wisconsin saw a troubling increase in chronic absences.

Amid a brisk pace of development activity in metro Milwaukee, the region’s construction labor market is as tight as it has been in at least 20 years.

Legal sales of cigarettes have plummeted in recent years, meaning Wisconsin state government is receiving much less in revenue from cigarette taxes.

Wisconsin’s state and local tax burden fell again in 2022 to its lowest level on record, due to a $1 billion-a-year income tax cut, tight limits on property taxes, and strong growth in residents’ incomes.

Less than half of graduates from public high schools in Milwaukee are enrolling in college immediately after high school, and only one-third of college students in the region are graduating within the expected time frame.

Metro Milwaukee’s concentration of workers employed in STEM occupations is a competitive strength, but it lags peer metros on other metrics including productivity, household income, exports, and venture capital funding.

For decades, programs that offer public dollars to businesses as incentives to create jobs have played a prominent role in state and local economic development strategies.

Despite measures in the current state budget to lower property tax levies for K-12 schools, those levies are rising modestly yet again on December bills – clear evidence of the impact of school district referenda approved by voters.

The upcoming state budget cycle starting in July is on track to continue a recent trend of ever-larger state budget surpluses, creating an unprecedented opportunity to boost government services with additional spending, reduce taxes, or both.

Local government debt in Wisconsin hit record levels in 2020, driven by low-interest rates, infrastructure needs, and a little-known incentive in state law.