Fiscal Facts

Wisconsin’s job market made a strong recovery from the pandemic, with total employment hitting record levels in 2023. Our state also boasts an unemployment rate below the nation’s, and saw an increase in average worker wages that outpaced inflation since 2019.

Gross property tax levies approved in 2023 by local taxing jurisdictions in Wisconsin increased by 4.6% statewide, which exceeded inflation and was the largest increase since 2007.

Statewide public school enrollment in Wisconsin declined for the tenth straight year in 2023-24, with the nearly 9,000-student decline representing the second biggest one-year drop in the last decade.

At the height of the pandemic, Wisconsin saw a surge of increased participation in a range of outdoor pursuits. And even as the pandemic receded, by 2023, Wisconsinites still were exceeding pre-pandemic rates of participation in pastimes such as fishing and visiting state parks.

Next week, voters will decide whether to limit the authority of Wisconsin governors to spend federal funds and give greater authority over them to the Legislature. The changes could affect how the state spends billions of dollars in federal aid each year for roads, the environment, health care, and emergency and disaster response.

Wisconsin’s cities and villages increased their basic forms of spending in 2022 by the most in at least a decade, but the increase significantly lagged that year’s rate of inflation.

As the nation emerged from the pandemic, a surge in purchasing and economic activity fueled strong growth in Wisconsin’s sales tax revenues.

As housing has become increasingly unaffordable in Wisconsin and nationally since 2021, our state has issued more permits for housing construction. But the pace has declined slightly over the last two years and still lags far behind the housing boom years of the early 2000s.

Though the high unemployment that accompanied the COVID-19 pandemic has subsided, the number of people receiving FoodShare benefits in Wisconsin has not yet returned to 2019 levels.

Its upcoming budget finds Madison Metropolitan School District (MMSD) at a fiscal crossroads, with district leaders facing a projected shortfall of $39 million — and asking voters to approve two property tax referenda that are unprecedented in size and scope in district history.