Fiscal Facts

While unprecedented levels of federal pandemic relief have swept into Wisconsin since 2020, the combined aid to its state and local governments ranks in the bottom 10 states when measured as a share of annual spending.

Total state financial aid to college and university students in Wisconsin has lagged or declined in the last decade, leaving students to shoulder more of the cost of education – and undermining a tool to stem the state’s higher education enrollment declines and workforce challenges.

After the COVID-19 pandemic dramatically decreased traffic on Wisconsin’s roads, weekend traffic now has largely returned to near pre-pandemic levels. But weekday traffic, a much greater part of the total, remains at a lower level

At a time when many Wisconsin students need additional support, statewide summer school enrollment plunged in the early months of the pandemic and did not fully recover last summer.

Revenues from fees on transfers of real estate in Wisconsin increased 37% in fiscal year 2021, the largest annual increase in nearly four decades. This was driven by robust increases in real estate sales and residential property values during the COVID-19 pandemic.

As municipal public health agencies in Milwaukee County face evolving expectations and a generational test from a global pandemic, an assessment of future challenges suggests it may be appropriate to consider options to improve the structure for delivering these services.

As state officials have cut income taxes by billions of dollars during the past decade, average tax rates have declined for most Wisconsinites, but rates for those at the bottom of the income ladder have risen.

While Milwaukee’s racial disparities are often noted, such disparities in the rates of homeownership are even greater in Wisconsin’s other large cities, as well as statewide.

Since 2000, no state has seen a larger decline in the proportion of all employees who are union members than Wisconsin.

With new projections that the state’s bottom line will grow by $2.9 billion over the current two-year budget, Wisconsin lawmakers from both parties are debating how to utilize this newfound windfall.