Browsing: News & Analysis

Vice President Kamala Harris’ new housing down payment assistance proposal, which would give $25,000 to qualifying first-time home buyers, would dramatically increase housing prices, particularly in Midwestern metro areas such as Milwaukee, according to a new study by scholars at the American Enterprise Institute.

“There are communities that have decided they just don’t want to grow,” said Chad Lawler, who heads the Madison Area Builders Association.

Wisconsin accounted for 53% of the nation’s total mink pelt production in 2023, down 10 percent from the previous year.

Wisconsin’s largest school district, whose voters narrowly approved a quarter-billion dollar increase in funding last spring, is breaking the news to those voters that it may have to close some schools. But the process isn’t moving quickly.

Wisconsin is nearing the end of what Gov. Tony Evers proclaimed “Clean Energy Week,” and the Badger Institute offers ample reading on the subject.

How does Wisconsin’s spending compare to other states? It depends which ones you’re looking at and what sort of spending counts.

A federal report this month is touting two Wisconsin nuclear power plant sites — one operating, one shut down — as attractive locations for installing new nuclear electric generating plants.

America’s energy grids are strained, and Michigan is reconsidering nuclear’s role in meeting consumer demand. Wisconsin, too, should take note.

A county-by-county analysis shows that while some Wisconsinites residents are seeing real growth in their wages, others are falling behind the rise in prices.

People are leaving Illinois, Minnesota and Iowa and, according to a new study by the Tax Foundation, the loss of state revenue and the population migration are closely tied to punitive tax structures in those states.

There will be no police officers in Milwaukee Public Schools when classes begin this Tuesday, violating a requirement that is part of the current state budget.

Of the seven remaining two-year branch colleges in the Universities of Wisconsin system, three are within walking distance and the rest are within easy driving distance of technical colleges that now are offering many of the same liberal arts courses.

A legislative committee formed to study falling enrollment across the University of Wisconsin System could recommend putting an end to what’s left of a tottering two-year branch campus system.

If everything works out as under-promised, Microsoft will make the biggest single technology investment ever in the state of Wisconsin — a transformative infusion of billions of dollars to develop more than 1,500 acres in Racine County.

When it comes to UW-Madison faculty in social sciences and the humanities, the odds of finding a Republican donor are just 1 in 530.

While heat pumps can be cheaper than gas-powered furnaces, they add an average of more than $2,000 a year to a new Wisconsin home’s heating bill, according to a Badger Institute study.

Wisconsin will need to build 200,000 housing units by 2030 to accommodate all the people who want to live and work here. Sheboygan County is a microcosm of the problem — but on the forefront of a possible solution.

Specialized docket wins bipartisan support but faces a changed Supreme Court Advocates for a business court system operating since 2017…

A small group of enthusiasts would like to put Milwaukee at the forefront of historical preservation of postmodern architecture. Or at least help a downtown developer get a tax break.

After a year-long disenrollment, there are still 163,221 more people on Medicaid in Wisconsin than there were before the start of the pandemic, at a cost to taxpayers of at least $50 million a year.