Wisconsin’s general revenues and expenditures

By the numbers

Although Wisconsin has notched some substantial budget surpluses in the past handful of years, analysis of its budget records shows that the state has a long history of running short, at least when it comes to general purpose revenue and expenditures.

Out of the 28 fiscal years for which records are available online from the Wisconsin Department of Administration, the state spent more from the general fund than it collected in taxes in 18 of them.

General purpose revenues refer to money the state receives from income, sales, and other taxes that goes into the state’s general fund. As the Department of Revenue’s fiscal dashboard shows, the majority of general funds go to public school aid and on medical assistance — which is chiefly the state’s share of Medicaid, or BadgerCare Plus, as it is branded in Wisconsin — but some is also spent on the University of Wisconsin system, on tax relief and on other programs.

Over the nearly three-decade-long period, the state has cumulatively spent about $3.5 billion more than it has taken into the general fund in taxes. The average difference was a shortfall of $126.7 million, and the average margin was a deficit of 1.8% of revenues.

These averages have been reduced in recent years by uncharacteristically large surpluses since the COVID-19 pandemic. Counting only years prior to the pandemic, the typical difference was a deficit of $389.6 million, or a shortfall of 3.33% on average.

Wisconsin ran a surplus of 1.17% in fiscal year 2020, 6.63% in FY 2021, and 10.66% in both FY 2022 and FY 2023, the largest recorded in the data. Prior to the pandemic, the largest surplus was 1.09%, and that was recorded in 2019. The largest deficit in recent history was in FY 2002, when the state received $1.24 billion less in general purpose revenue than it spent.

Shortfalls in general fund tax revenue are usually offset by other general departmental revenues (including tribal gaming revenue), fund transfers, and appropriation lapses — that is, an agency not spending all of an appropriation. However, the general fund has run a deficit on two occasions, according to a Legislative Reference Bureau report: once in 1983, and again in 2003.

The Wisconsin state constitution includes a “balanced budget” provision that requires the Legislature to levy additional taxes to pay off a deficit in the following fiscal year. The governor also has statutory authority to reduce agency spending if the secretary of administration determines that spending will exceed revenues to prevent deficits from occurring.

In addition to general purpose revenues, which make up 29.2% of the state’s total expenditure, Wisconsin also collects funds from program revenues and segregated revenues. Segregated fund revenues come from taxes that are set aside for specific purposes, while examples of program revenues would be licenses or fees.

Wisconsin accounts for its revenues and expenditures on a fiscal year that runs from July 1 to June 30, so its fiscal year 2024 ended on June 30, 2024, and fiscal year 2025 began on July 1. Wisconsin also uses a biennial budget system that begins on July 1 of each odd-numbered year.

The underlying numbers