Preface introducing the 2026 Mandate for Madison
Over the past 15 years, Wisconsin has made substantial progress toward greater economic freedom, rising from near the bottom of the Fraser Institute and Cato Institute state economic freedom rankings to the second quintile.
Governing decisions are complex and generally involve difficult tradeoffs. Yet a single unifying question runs through many of the ongoing policy debates taking place in Wisconsin: Should lawmakers in Madison continue the state’s movement toward a freer economy or return to a more government-centered approach to public policy?
The evidence about which path is most likely to produce prosperity for Wisconsinites is clear. In the first essay of the Badger Institute’s 2026 Mandate for Madison project, economist Jim Bohn documents how decades of research have demonstrated the close link between greater economic freedom and human flourishing. His analysis of county-level data near Wisconsin’s borders with Illinois and Minnesota provides localized confirmation of the broader state-level and international findings that economic freedom promotes prosperity.
To understand why the current moment is so consequential, it helps to consider how far Wisconsin has come.
In the 2000s, the state’s governance model was characterized by high taxes, an unusually large public sector, and rigid labor market regulation. Since then, a prolonged period of spending restraint solidified the state’s finances and reduced the role of government in the state economy. Wisconsin is a national leader in school choice, with a statewide voucher program that has been expanded repeatedly. Major labor market reforms, including Act 10 and right-to-work legislation, has given workers and employers greater flexibility. Recent housing reforms at the state and local level are making homebuilders freer to expand the housing supply.
This progress is substantial, but it is also incomplete. The state’s tax system remains uncompetitive and growth-restricting in key areas. Many families are still restricted to persistently under-performing government schools and lack adequate support to move their children to academic environments that better suit their unique needs. Important work remains on energy reliability, better market-based healthcare, and stable transportation funding.
The 2026 Mandate for Madison project provides evidence-based guidance for continuing Wisconsin’s movement toward greater economic freedom. But policymakers must also resist calls to roll back the reforms of recent years and return to the government-centered and economically restrictive approach to policy that dominated the state prior to the 2010s.
The state government has already begun to move away from spending restraint. Recent spending increases have put pressure on the state budget and contributed to high-profile calls for major tax increases on individuals and businesses.
Furthermore, proposals continue to emerge to more than double the state’s minimum wage, despite evidence of negative effects on employment prospects for young people. The right-to-work reforms that helped lift Wisconsin from the bottom of economic freedom rankings are under constant rhetorical and legislative threat. Opponents of school choice continue to argue outcomes can be improved primarily through increased spending in the district system, while efforts to accelerate decarbonization through additional regulation threaten to undermine reliability, strain household budgets, and impede manufacturing competitiveness.
Rejecting counterproductive ideas will be as important as implementing sound ones in the years ahead, and that reality will be reflected in this project.
The progress Wisconsin has made is real, but it is also fragile. The 2026 Mandate for Madison project will provide the evidence base Wisconsin policymakers need to protect the gains of the past 15 years and continue moving toward greater economic freedom and prosperity.
Ben Eisen is the Badger Institute’s Vice President of Policy and Research.
