Browsing: Economic Development

Wisconsin can strengthen its economic competitiveness by reducing unnecessary regulation, improving oversight of the regulatory process and making its legal environment more efficient and predictable for businesses

Wisconsin should replace its current graduated individual income tax with a single-rate structure and set that rate as low as fiscal conditions responsibly allow.

Wisconsin’s northern counties’ budgets, economies are squeezed by how much land is undevelopable and off tax rolls.

Business and city leaders in Janesville are warning of the long-term economic damage of citizens taking direct control over major development in the city.

Wisconsin transportation policy should begin with the people who use the system: where they want to go, how they want to get there and how those choices may change as new technologies become available.

A costly proposed commuter rail system between Kenosha, Racine and Milwaukee is back on the radar of municipal leaders, even as frequent service on high-end buses already serves commuters on the same route.

Since data centers are capital intensive, Wisconsin — a state that manufactures capital goods — is benefiting immensely.

Much remains to make Wisconsin reach its full economic potential, including matching its strong inputs with stronger outputs.

Tax increment financing can raise existing residents’ property tax bills, at least the way the tool is used in Wisconsin.

Sales tax exemption isn’t a subsidy but a common shield against increasing consumers’ prices with hidden levies.

A growing number of Wisconsin communities are choosing to act against considerable economic interest and sit out the data center revolution.

Geography matters for what’s called “latency,” the small but often important amount of time it takes signals to travel from a user to whatever data center holds the information he’s using.

Wisconsin and Ontario are both manufacturing centers with similar economic strengths and vulnerabilities. The Badger State should learn from Ontario’s mistakes.

Subjecting big development proposals to popular vote risks killing statewide economic growth, observers say in the wake of a successful effort by Port Washington data center opponents to give citizens the ability to nix the future use of a key financing tool.

From 2011 to 2024, Wisconsin counties beat their Illinois counterparts 103 percent to 68 percent in private-sector economic output.

The most recent Marquette Law School poll shows public opinion turning against data centers.

A bill that will ultimately help increase housing supply, make homes more affordable and still allow local municipalities to control where and how fast they grow passed through the Wisconsin Senate this week and was expected to pass in the Assembly Thursday as well.

The state Assembly this week passed a bill barring data centers from passing on any utility costs to other ratepayers in Wisconsin — targeting a key objection from Wisconsinites who oppose data center development.

Assembly Bill 840, passed 53-44 almost entirely along party lines, also requires new data centers to use water-conserving technology for cooling and to report annual water use to the Department of Natural Resources.

Impacts are minimal in comparison to what might have occurred Seldom if ever conceded by many critics of the planned $15 billion 672-acre data center under way in…

Plans for a municipally-owned grocery store in Madison is the perfect illustration of why government should stay out of an intensely competitive business it knows nothing about.