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Get the latest news and research from Badger Institute
- Wisconsin’s southern border shows what freedom brings
- When students harm themselves economically by going to college
- Bill to increase Wisconsin housing supply is now law
- Forty-year-old vehicle emissions program under new scrutiny
- In memory of Tom Howatt, embodiment of American Dream
- The Wisconsin experiment in economic freedom
- An agenda for opportunity and prosperity in Wisconsin
- From mudslinging to Mandate
Browsing: Economy
From 2011 to 2024, Wisconsin counties beat their Illinois counterparts 103 percent to 68 percent in private-sector economic output.
Wisconsin’s ranks higher in labor market freedom than it has been at almost any point since the 1980s, according to the Fraser Institute’s Economic Freedom of North America Index.
Evidence from border counties indicates increased economic freedom encourages prosperity for Wisconsin residents.
The most recent Marquette Law School poll shows public opinion turning against data centers.
The law, passed in 2023, decrees that venues rented for private events at which the people holding the party bring their own alcohol can host only six such events a year, and only one a month — unless they prohibit bring-your-own drinks and instead get a liquor license like a tavern. Those are subject to strict quotas. Town board can simply refuse.
While down from pandemic era highs set in 2022, the average FoodShare benefits per Wisconsin household remain well above the pre-pandemic high water mark, according to data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Policymakers are scrambling for solutions as Wisconsin property tax burdens continue to rise. As homeowners clamor for relief, Gov. Tony Evers (D) has proposed using $1.3 billion from the state’s surplus to buy down property tax bills. Unfortunately, the proposal does nothing to address the structural drivers of high (and rising) property taxes and, if anything, puts more pressure on them in the future. His proposal commits the state to subsidies that shift burdens rather than alleviate them.
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…
A decline in cargo moving across the Great Lakes via United States-flagged “lakers” has led to widely felt impacts in port towns, including at a major Superior coal terminal now slated to shutter its operations by this upcoming summer.
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.
While undergraduate enrollment in most University of Wisconsin System schools trends downward, there has been a dramatic increase in students choosing the state’s technical colleges since the pandemic.
Dramatically fewer University of Wisconsin System students are pursuing degrees in the humanities than a decade ago.
The City of Milwaukee is willing to pay a new marketing and communications officer for The Hop, its little-used $128 million streetcar, up to $108,000 per year plus benefits.
Technical college graduates and small business owners will be big winners in the massive Vantage Data Centers development soon expected to become the largest employer in Port Washington.
The biggest data centers planned for Wisconsin are not a threat to local water systems or to Lake Michigan — a fact opponents either can’t believe or won’t admit.
New nuclear measure in Wisconsin includes shifts in state’s priorities in law for ‘only way we keep lights on.’
Prices of used vehicles are ticking up once again in the Midwest after retreating from all-time highs set during the supply chain snarls of 2022.
After a storm of controversy surrounding the old Egg Harbor property, the owner of the Alpine Resort no longer thinks it’s “worth it” to make his home among such neighbors.
Business leaders and educators are concerned about the future of the workforce in the Badger State — and debating whether many young Wisconsinites are just lazy.
A new requirement to hire a “special inspector” to be on hand during construction will add an estimated $20,000 to any store, school, office, factory or apartment building in the Wisconsin.

