Browsing: Economy

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

Madison is among the 50 costliest metros nationwide, yet most of Dane County remains open land that would seem to be an obvious place for single-family homes.

What works for Wisconsin housing is letting the market build: easing the zoning, lot size, and permitting rules that artificially constrain supply.

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.

Wisconsin’s poverty rate declined for the second consecutive year in 2024, data from the Census Bureau’s Small Area Income and Poverty Estimates show.

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.

The number of dairy farms in Wisconsin has fallen below 5,000 herds for the first time — only half as many as just 11 years ago.

Spending on food in Wisconsin reached a record $5,943 per person in 2025. However, adjusting for inflation, food spending is slightly below the per-capita peak in 2019.

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.

Wisconsin’s own economics standards consistently teach the importance of prices, profits, competition, incentives and property rights, while one of the state’s leading candidates for governor campaigns without admitting or even seeming to understand their value.

Consumer debt owed by Wisconsinites reached $49,210 per person in the fourth quarter of 2025.

Wisconsinites’ household debt, on average, is equal to 116% of their annual household income, recent data from the Federal Reserve shows.

Adjusting for inflation shows a Wisconsin manufacturing sector that has only held even for a decade, according to data from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis.

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