A Special Report: We sent historian John Gurda across the state to size up where Wisconsin is today, what it is thinking and what it wants.

The recent fiscal challenges facing Wisconsin state and local governments have caused a serious re-evaluation of all aspects of government spending. Yet little attention has been given to the cost of providing pensions to public employees.

The problem is far too severe to be solved by increasing taxes on the wealthy or by cutting the bureaucracy. In other words, nothing that resembles business-as-usual will close Wisconsin’s looming budget hole.

The unfunded liability for these health care costs stands at $2.6 billion, more than double the district’s entire annual operating budget. These costs will ultimately be borne by Milwaukee taxpayers, and, because of the state school funding formula, taxpayers statewide.

Not only would Wisconsin’s households and firms bear the high burden of the costs of the Governor’s Task Force on Global Warming proposals, but these costs will be borne in the near term.

Trends paint the picture of modern legislators who work less, grow older in office and are less likely to lose their seat in a general election. In effect, for a large number of legislators, their legislative job has become their career.

Wisconsin’s criminal justice system is marked by a pronounced cycle of crime followed by incarceration followed by parole followed by repeated crime.

New testing approaches not only could serve as a basis for changing state-required tests, but they could also pave the way to improvements in how Wisconsin’s teachers are compensated. These changes would have important implications for the teaching profession.

The state should move toward a testing program with computer-based scoring so that results could be obtained and used promptly.

The state’s budget problems are due to the cumulative effect of bad budget practices which have persisted for the better part of the past decade, in good and bad economic times.

The state could become a “health care magnet,” attracting large-scale migration each year from other states among individuals and families in need of insurance.

Poll finds Wisconsinites concerned about jobs and the state’s economy.

Poll finds 50% of Wisconsinites thinks cutting state spending by 3% is the solution to the state’s deficit problem.

At some point, the liability must be paid or benefits must be scaled back.

Likely voters were asked their preferences in the 2008 presidential election as well as factors important to them in choosing a new president.