A decade after the Great Recession slammed the brakes on the U.S. economy, employment in Wisconsin has recovered and surged almost 72,000 jobs higher than its pre-recession peak.
For the first time, federal law now requires states and school districts to report per-pupil spending down to the level of each individual school.
Compared to other states, Wisconsin’s greater reliance on a few taxes means those taxes here rank relatively high compared to other states.
Taxes paid by Wisconsinites as a share of personal income have fallen in the last two decades by more than two percentage points, one of the largest decreases of any state.
Wisconsin state budget reserves recently hit their highest level in four decades, as corporate tax collections grew at their fastest rate in over 50 years.
As Wisconsin’s medical marijuana debate ramps up, the track record for other states that legalized it in similar fashion suggests it is unlikely that doing so here would quickly lead to recreational legalization.
If marijuana is legalized for medical purposes in Wisconsin, then taxed and made widely available, it remains unlikely that it would provide a transformative source of revenue for the state.
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.
34 Schroeder Ct., Suite 220
Madison, WI 53711
(608) 283-7620