Fiscal Facts

Metro Milwaukee compares favorably to peer metro areas in its talent pool of knowledge workers, including in science, engineering, and technology-dependent fields, but lags in key measures of entrepreneurship, including small-business creation, venture capital funding, and minority-owned businesses.

In the past five years, Wisconsin’s largest school districts and counties together shed more than $779 million in potential costs for health benefits for their retirees.

Robust growth in property values in Wisconsin in 2019, coupled with modest increases in local property tax levies, caused property tax rates to decrease statewide for the fifth straight year.

As Wisconsin’s demographic makeup skews older, its leaders must consider measures to ensure its workforce can support future economic growth.

The number of working-age individuals living in Wisconsin has declined for several straight years, adding to concerns about workforce challenges.

State law does not provide Wisconsin municipalities with access to financing tools used for economic development in other states.

The extent to which Milwaukee relies on tax increment financing to fund its streetcar, The Hop, sets it apart from streetcar systems in other cities.

The tepid pace of new construction in Wisconsin trails recent increases in property values and raises questions about using it as the sole factor to limit local property tax increases.

Property values in Wisconsin rose last year by the fastest rate since before the Great Recession, offering a welcome reminder of the economic recovery.

Wisconsin had the 11th-most local governments of any state in 2017, due in part to a tenfold increase in the last five decades in special districts that manage lakes, sewers, and sanitation.