Fiscal Facts

As local officials throughout Wisconsin ramp up work on annual budgets for their communities, they face the largest gap on record between costs they incur providing services to state facilities and the reimbursement they receive from the state for these services.

The number of Wisconsin FoodShare recipients grew to 724,200 in August, its highest point yet this year and an increase of more than 120,000 people since March, when the COVID-19 crisis began in the U.S. The number of households enrolled in the program now totals 378,200, an increase of 66,000 (21%) over last year — reversing a longstanding trend of declining program usage since 2013.

Equalized property values increased statewide in Wisconsin by 5.6% to $613.1 billion in 2020, the second-largest yearly percentage increase in more than a decade.

Wisconsin’s gross property tax levies saw their largest percentage increase in more than a decade on last December’s bills, but robust growth in property values caused tax rates to decrease statewide for the sixth straight year.

As the single largest category of general-purpose revenue state spending, education could face additional pressure in the next state budget.

In the years preceding the coronavirus pandemic, a healthy economy allowed Wisconsin’s cities and villages to build up balances in their core funds, which could help them navigate the uncertain times ahead.

As communities face economic upheaval from COVID-19, the Wisconsin Policy Forum offers new data to bolster Wisconsinites’ understanding of city and village finances throughout the state.

With the COVID-19 pandemic causing unemployment to increase sharply across Wisconsin’s economy, the arts and culture sector has been among the hardest hit.

While the city of Milwaukee invests millions of federal and local dollars each year into a broad array of housing programs and strategies, a review of three peer cities suggests that streamlined services, clearer leadership, increased strategic planning and coordination and expanded private sector engagement could further improve the city’s housing impacts.

In a gradual but far-reaching shift, the state government in recent years has accounted for a much larger share of public spending in Wisconsin than a quarter-century ago, increasing from 38.7% in 1993 to 47.6% in 2017, according to U.S. Census Bureau data.