Fiscal Facts

An alarming picture of the state government workforce emerges from recently published data, which show turnover and vacancy rates among state jobs in Wisconsin reached all-time highs last year.

Recent Wisconsin Policy Forum research examined a critical if overlooked local government service: sanitary and stormwater sewers, and the mounting costs to operate them.

The 2024 budget cycle finds Wisconsin’ largest school district, Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS), facing the challenges of declining student enrollment and the need to boost employee pay amid record inflation in a tight labor market.

Early childhood education and care provides an essential service to Wisconsin families and supports Wisconsin children at a critical stage of brain development.

While still passing in sizable numbers in the April 2023 election, local ballot referenda to allow school districts to exceed state property tax limits passed at the lowest rate since 2010. The decline comes after years in which such measures were passed in record numbers and amounts.

While recent state budgets have increased staffing levels and pay for both assistant district attorneys and public defenders in Wisconsin, their salaries still lag those of attorneys in the private sector. Meanwhile, turnover and workloads for the positions have increased.

After trailing the national average for five years, per-student funding at public colleges and universities in Wisconsin overtook it in 2021.

A proposal in Gov. Tony Evers’ budget would require Wisconsin employers of 50 or more to provide their workers with paid family and medical leave. This comes as more states are adopting such requirements — though so far, the change is not happening as quickly in the Midwest.

While starkly different in most details, competing plans to overhaul Wisconsin’s income tax code offered by Gov. Tony Evers and State Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu share one common thread: they would sharply change how the state taxes its highest earners.

Amid ridership declines, local fiscal restraints, and the loss of federal pandemic aid, the Milwaukee County Transit System (MCTS) faces a fiscal “cliff” that could translate into a deficit in its operating budget of nearly $26 million annually in 2025.