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Get the latest news and research from Badger Institute
- Supreme Court gives governor’s bureaucrats free rein
- Robocars vs. overpriced groceries
- Antiquated Wisconsin law doesn’t allow driverless vehicles
- Plenty of time left for good policy in Wisconsin Legislature
- The truth about MPS, who makes it to graduation and who doesn’t
- Wisconsin’s retirement income exclusion will shift tax burdens to working families over time
- Taxpayers getting jobbed
- Cursing the rain — and tax cuts — cuz everyone benefits
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Free-market reforms are driving prosperity and fostering human flourishing in the Dairy State. This unmistakable trend is evident in state economic indicators from recent decades, a hopeful story that can instill pride in all Wisconsinites.
In both of the two most recent legislative sessions, Wisconsin legislators introduced just over 2,300 bills and saw less than 12% enacted.
Separate constitutional amendment on veto power also advances Wisconsin voters will decide on primary day, Aug. 13, whether the state…
Wisconsin’s smallest incorporated village is on a hill, and in a valley, too.
A new bill in Madison could, if enacted, result in substantial property tax cuts in many school districts. It would also result in significantly higher state aid for many traditional public school districts where large numbers of children choose to attend independent charter schools or private schools in one of Wisconsin’s parental choice programs.
Legalizing all adult use is likely to increase the uncontrolled and harmful use of cannabis — that is, “cannabis use disorder” — in Wisconsin. Researchers are more divided on whether legalizing only the medical use of marijuana has similar effects.
The unions’ lawsuit to overturn Wisconsin’s “Act 10” 2011 labor reforms isn’t primarily about money.
There is a real possibility for cannabis reform to result in public safety gains for the Badger State but the tradeoffs that must be accepted are a significant reduction in safety on the state’s highways and roads and an increase in minor property and nuisance crimes near cannabis dispensaries if the state were to establish a commercial market for either medical or adult-use products.
Saying they “have not given up on a colorblind society,” Wisconsin Republicans have filed a bill to remove race-based considerations from an array of UW System and technical college financial aid programs.
Parents have changed America’s mind on education, parents who correctly see their children’s futures as more important than some abstract idea about there being one proper shape for schooling.
Despite all of the millions of dollars, time spent and inconveniences imposed, it’s nearly impossible to determine if Wisconsin’s emission testing program meaningfully decreases exhaust emissions that form ozone and damage air quality.
Milwaukee city officials are going to run their streetcars, part of the $128 million Hop, through a closed construction site on Sundays, and Sundays only, throughout the winter in order to satisfy the requirements of a federal grant.
A state Department of Health Services decision to take a year to remove ineligible people from Wisconsin’s Medicaid rolls — much slower than many other states — will cost federal and state taxpayers an estimated $745 million.
The U.S. Government Accountability Office estimated this week that people who filed for unemployment insurance during the pandemic stole somewhere between $100 billion and $135 billion in benefits — just a portion of the estimated fraud across all federal pandemic programs.
The Legislature appears ready to confront one of the primary factors driving up childcare costs in Wisconsin: overregulation. Failing to confront this reality would miss an opportunity to improve the affordability and accessibility of childcare without adding to the budget. Eliminating unnecessary or unverifiable regulations can reduce compliance costs for childcare providers without sacrificing quality — savings that they can pass on to families. Fewer regulations will increase competition among childcare providers, return authority to parents and ultimately make childcare more affordable for Wisconsin families.
Volunteers are the backbone of emergency response in Wisconsin and many communities have struggled for years to find enough of them.
A recent one-sided smear by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel of the parental rights group Moms for Liberty was so egregious that even the Wall Street Journal took notice.
Many counties in Wisconsin have essentially decriminalized the possession or sale of marijuana, or cannabis, as it now often is known, and the relatively few people who are charged criminally in other counties are ever incarcerated.
The American Dream isn’t primarily about money.
According to Pew Research Center analysis, just 11% said “being wealthy” is essential to the American Dream. Large majorities cite “freedom of choice in how to live” (77%), having a good family life (70%) and retiring comfortably (60%).
Wisconsin doesn’t have to send back a single dime of the federal aid it has already received, budget experts told the Badger Institute.