Browsing: Spending and Accountability

Wisconsin’ recent failures of accountability share a common feature: Power has increasingly shifted away from the Legislature and toward governors, agencies, courts and other institutions that operate further from direct democratic control.

Millions of dollars have been spent on the aim to build 80 charging stations for electric vehicles at gas stations, hotels, and other venues across Wisconsin.

The Wisconsin Department of Administration has spent nearly $2 million operating two state offices that have since 2019 been denied funding by the Legislature.

Milwaukee Public Schools, amid a fiscal crisis, should close 25 underutilized school buildings to free up wasted resources, says City Forward Collective.

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.

Per-pupil spending by Wisconsin school districts is at its highest level since 2000 even after adjusting for inflation, according to data from the Department of Public Instruction.

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.

Nearly 50 years after the U.S. government banned lead-based paint, Milwaukee Public Schools officials have again been trying to cover up or remove the toxic substance that parents likely presume was dealt with long ago.

Gov. Tony Evers is pressing the Legislature for $70 million to process FoodShare applications to stave off federal penalties that could cost state taxpayers as much as $225 million.

Money wasted on Hop while bus access for people who really need it is at risk Milwaukee County’s bus network…

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.

The Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction is facing a crisis of confidence after accusations of gutting academic standards, manipulating report cards, slacking on fiscal oversight and bungling oversight of sexual misconduct among teachers.

Republican candidates for Wisconsin governor are joining politicians across the country who are increasingly skeptical of tenure guarantees for professors.

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.

Wisconsin taxpayers ought to be rooting hard for conservatives to hold the line during this current federal government shutdown and let the pandemic-era super-subsidies for the Affordable Care Act run out at the end of the year.

There’s more evidence in recent days that the federal government spends money in two ways — too quickly and too slowly.

Among Wisconsin’s most populous counties, Dane County pays the highest interest on government debt on a per-resident basis.

Among Wisconsin’s large counties, Jefferson County’s government spent the most per resident — more than twice as much as the lowest-spending county government, Waukesha.

State agencies have begun their rush through a regulatory back door that will almost certainly cost owners of businesses large and small in Wisconsin tens of millions of dollars.