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What's new from the Badger Institute
Report provides an overview of labor force participation in Wisconsin. Increasing the rate by just 1 percentage point would increase state GDP by $667 annually per resident. By Badger Institute visiting fellows Ike Brannon and Andrew Hanson.
Interactive map of labor force participation rates
An interactive map shows the labor force participation rate for every Wisconsin county. Washington County enjoys the highest participation rate (74.8%), while Adams County has the lowest rate (48.6%). View the map here.
Join us Tuesday, Oct. 23, for our Annual Dinner — featuring Jason Riley, Wall Street Journal columnist, Manhattan Institute senior fellow, 2018 Bradley Prize winner, Fox News commentator and author of “False Black Power?” and “Please Stop Helping Us.”
He'll speak on the tragic lack of educational, social and economic advancement among many African-Americans in America and why black political success hasn’t made a difference.
For more information or to register, click here.
Ike Brannon (left), president of the consulting firm Capital Policy Analytics in Washington, D.C., and Andrew Hanson, associate professor of economics at Marquette University, will provide the institute with research and commentary on a wide variety of topical issues ranging from labor force needs to immigration to minimum wages to tax subsidies. Read more here.
► Time to burn: So few fires to fight. By Dave Daley.
► Government grows at expense of private sector. By Dave Lubach.
► Clinging to an old picture. By Mike Nichols.
► Regional approach offers solution. By Janet Weyandt.
► Conservative young Wisconsin women defy stereotypes. By Emily Jashinsky.
► From the ground up: A profile of Badger Mining Corp. By Betsy Thatcher.
► Tax incremental financing: Valuable tool or crony capitalism? By Ken Wysocky.
► Tax incremental financing is a recipe for abuse. By Richard Esenberg.
► Eschewing marriage and celebrating marriage. By Marie Rohde.
► Marriage is a foreign concept to some. By Michael Jahr.
► The road to driverless transit. By Baruch Feigenbaum.
Madison — A bill signed by Gov. Scott Walker on April 16 will allow aspiring chiropractors who pass the national board exam to secure a license in Wisconsin without having to attain an arbitrarily higher score set by the state. Read more here.
The Center will focus on public policies related to poverty alleviation, criminal justice, upward mobility and occupational licensing. The Institute also announces Visiting Fellows Program.
Residents in high-tax states like ours are stung harder by cap on state/local tax deduction. By visiting fellow Jay Miller.
Madison — Barbers, cosmetologists and other beauty professionals will now be able to practice their professions with fewer regulatory burdens after Gov. Scott Walker on Nov. 27 signed into law reforms that will reduce complicated and costly licensing requirements. Read more here.
Read our April 2017 report, “Government’s love for licensure,” which tells the real-world stories of Wisconsinites stymied by the state's burdensome licensure system. Reforms signed into law in November remove some of the regulations highlighted in the report.
The Badger Institute also profiled business people and entrepreneurs hampered by Wisconsin's licensure rules:
Albert Walker, an ex-offender whose clients include many Packers players, has years of barbering experience but, until recently passed reforms, couldn't run his own shop due to onerous state licensing regulations. Watch video of Albert Walker. Read his story.
UW-Madison students Samuel Haack and James Rohde want to launch an on-demand barbering business to connect clients with barbers off premises. But Wisconsin's professional licensing regulations stood in their way. Read their story.
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View our June 26, 2017, webinar featuring Robert W. Poole Jr. on the potential benefits of Interstate tolling as Wisconsin grapples with its perennial transportation funding dilemma. Poole is director of transportation policy at the Reason Foundation and author of Rebuilding and Modernizing Wisconsin's Interstate with Toll Financing.
How Wisconsin's child care quality rating and improvement system measures up. Wisconsin needs to continue YoungStar and make sure tax dollars do not flow to substandard providers.
By Rob Grunewald, Michael Jahr and Matt Snyder
June 2017
Report identifies policy changes to Wisconsin's expungement and sentence adjustment laws that could lighten the state's prison load, increase employment opportunities for ex-offenders and help employers find workers.
► Problems with Wisconsin’s Expungement Law: How the Law is Used and How to Make It More Equitable and Effective
► Sentence Adjustment Petitions: Are They Working?
Report highlights strategies for reducing recidivism through investment in work, training and re-entry programs, and encourages the use of social impact bonds.
► Wisconsin's historical policy dilemma on corrections
► The state can't afford status quo
► Re-entry program offers Hope for Prisoners
► Alma Center: Breaking the cycle of abuse
► MATC program puts offenders on career path
► Private industry, prisons team up
► Skilled trades program offers a second chance
► Social impact bonds: A new way forward
► Video of event in Milwaukee featuring Jon Ponder
The Project for 21st Century Federalism is the Badger Institute's multi-year investigation of the growth in federal grants and their effect on state and local governance. Stories in the project include:
► Records request illustrates lack of transparency of federal school funding
► Private school principals say federal funding process is flawed
► Teachers want to help kids, not do paperwork
► Educators decry feds' heavy-handed approach toward local schools
► Survey of Wisconsin public school teachers who work under federally funded programs
► Wisconsin school officials want federal role in local education reduced
► Full school survey on federal funding
► Invasion of the federal bean counters
► Schools hire high-priced specialists to deal with complex federal grant rules
► Federal rules distort local education policy
► Wisconsin legislators missing opportunity in ESSA to take control of education
► The bureaucratic 'skim' of federal school funding
► The federalization of Wisconsin DPI
► Analysis: Cash-strapped school districts burdened by federal grant regulations
► While poverty persists for St. Croix Chippewa, tribe officials misuse federal funds, audit shows
► Press release on the launch of the Federal Grant$tanding project
Badger Institute's media mentions
Wisconsin's criminal expungement rules keep needed workers out of jobs, study says
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: June 6, 2018
Bureaucracy devours funds that could support teaching
Deseret News: May 22, 2018
Analysis highlights tax migration exodus from Wisconsin
Watchdog.org: March 26, 2018
GOP tax bill provision aims to spark investment in low-income neighborhoods
Wisconsin Public Radio: March 18, 2018
Michael Jahr discusses the Center for Opportunity
Right Wisconsin podcast: March 9, 2018
The Case Against The Kimberly-Clark 'Bailout' Plan
Wisconsin Public Radio: February 28, 2018
Wisconsin seeks to build new prison
"UpFront with Mike Gousha": February 24, 2018
The Kimberly-Clark bailout is a bad idea
Right Wisconsin: February 21, 2018
Licensing reform could fulfill aspiring chiropractor's lifelong dream
Right Wisconsin: February 20, 2018
Why toll roads are Wisconsin's only realistic solution to its transportation roadblock
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: February 14, 2018
Tax credit, welfare reform among key issues facing Wisconsin lawmakers
Wisconsin Watchdog: February 9, 2018
The Badger Institute: Value-added tolling would address Gov. Walker’s concerns
WisPolitics.com: February 8, 2018
Value-added tolling would address Gov. Walker’s concerns
Urban Milwaukee: February 8, 2018
New law makes it easier on barbers
NBC26 in Green Bay: December 3, 2017
Other views: The festering mess that is Illinois
Janesville Gazette: November 29, 2017
Mike Nichols on federal tax spending at local school districts
The Jerry Bader Show: October 31, 2017
RightWisconsin Conversations with Michael Jahr
RightWisconsin podcast: October 25, 2017
WPRI becomes the Badger Institute
Today's TMJ4: October 24, 2017
Mike Nichols on name change from WPRI
The Jerry Bader Show: October 18, 2017
Local schools deserve local control
Sheboygan Press: October 1, 2017
Local schools deserve local control
WisPolitics.com: September 26, 2017
Walker objects to challenger's Wisconsin education plan
USnews.com: September 14, 2017
Green Bay barber testifying to Legislature
Rock 94.7 FM: August 23, 2017
Green Bay barber testifying to Legislature
WSAU.com: August 23, 2017
Barber, UW student to explain how licensure stymies their startups
WisBusiness.com: August 23, 2017
Look down the road in transportation funding debate
The Cap Times: July 21, 2017
Wisconsin residents still pay a mother lode of taxes
Wisconsin State Journal: July 6, 2017
Dems attempt to mobilize lobbyists against licensing reform
Media Trackers: July 6, 2017
Local Wisconsin leaders react to Trump's visit
Washington Examiner: June 13, 2017
NFL barber shop faces same kind of threat hurting patients
Townhall.com: June 9, 2017
Study finds Wisconsin poverty rate reached new low in 2015
Wisconsin Watchdog: June 8, 2017
Federal grants are the key to restraining bureaucracy
Washington Examiner: May 11, 2017
Bills meant to deregulate cosmetologists and barbers earn praise, raise concerns
WSAW-TV: May 3, 2017
Proposed bill hopes to ease requirements for hair stylists and barbers
WTMJ-TV: May 1, 2017
Poole: Wisconsin should act now on interstate tolling
Journal Sentinel: April 17, 2017
A new approach for occupational licensing in Wisconsin
Sheboygan Press: April 7, 2017
Can Milwaukee be considered a 'donor' city?
Sheboygan Press: March 31, 2017
Federal grant funding obscures how government is funded, diffuses accountability
Sunshine Week website: March 14, 2017
Nichols, Brannon: Help kids succeed before they get to college
Journal Sentinel: March 5, 2017
Hanson: EITC expansion will help Wisconsin's low- and middle-income workers
Journal Sentinel: February 23, 2017
Nichols: Rebuilding lives and the economy
Journal Sentinel: February 12, 2017
How a law designed to promote fairness is hiking gas prices in Wisconsin
The Daily Signal: February 9, 2017
Federalism is a watchword in new year
Rhinelander Daily News: February 2, 2017
On its 30th anniversary, the Badger Institute announces new, ambitious tax policy initiative, revamped magazine, fellows program and statewide events.
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