Browsing: State Budget

Scott Walker is Reagan-like in his bold steps to remake Wisconsin government By Richard Esenberg Madison has fallen. All of…

There could not have been a sharper contrast between the tension in Madison and the calm in Washington, D.C.

The lessons from Indiana’s playbookBy Christopher Ruhl After more than six years in office, Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels has earned…

Peter Barca, a usually levelheaded Democrat, articulated what has been wrong with state government.

The voters exact vengeance upon the disdainful Democrats. Before the vote on Nov. 2, humorist P.J. O’Rourke quipped that it…

Business, it is said, clamors to zip by train between Milwaukee and Madison. Business, we’re told, needs high-speed rail and…

Paul Ryan, unlike the president, acts like a grownup in facing the entitlement tsunami By RICHARD ESENBERG In his State…

Consider the plump budget, the slow high-speed train and class-conscious Legos. As John Keats would have appreciated, autumn in Wisconsin…

Dispatch: Gubernatorial Politics Doyle fires warning shot at Walker.By Aaron Rodriguez With the 2010 election season approaching, Gov. Jim Doyle…

Report recommends the Legislature and the governor repeal the minimum markup law as applied to motor fuel.

This study points out that Healthy Wisconsin is not so much a solution to the problem as it is the creator of even bigger problems that will dwarf the current crisis we have in health care.

As Wisconsin’s debt load continues to grow, the tax burden for Wisconsin families and businesses will grow right along with it

The future impact in Wisconsin

In state capitols across the country governors and legislatures have been forced to put all of their energy into solving enormous fiscal shortfalls. Given their dependence on income tax and sales tax revenues, the 2001 recession hit state governments particularly hard. In 2003, no fewer than 39 states, including Wisconsin, experienced budget gaps. During the

In 2002, state and local government spending in Wisconsin was 7.7% above the national average while our income level was 2.8% below the national average

A critical examination

Wisconsin state government is facing the most significant financial challenge in its history. The state budget is out of balance by $3.2 billion. The irony here is that the crisis comes close on the heels of the 1990s, when state government seemed able to do anything. That was the era of elevated spending, new programs,

The answer for Milwaukee governance

No issue in Wisconsin government has grown faster in the last decade than special education. It has accelerated to a $1 billion per year educational program with little accountability

An examination of potential cost savings