The state budget and the taxes that help finance it have a huge impact on children and families. The budget provides most of the funding for vital government services, such as education, health care, transportation, child welfare and other safety net programs.
For more detailed analysis, visit the Wisconsin Budget Project website.
The Affordable Care Act (ACA) provides funding for states to expand health insurance coverage for low-income adults who have income below 138% of the federal poverty level (FPL). That part of the ACA gave Wisconsin a great opportunity to close a very large gap in BadgerCare – coverage for “childless adults” (adults who aren’t custodial parents of a dependent child).
There are lots of reasons why Wisconsin should expand BadgerCare, but a graph in a Kaiser Commission report issued last week makes it especially clear. That bar graph, shown below, vividly illustrates that from a budget perspective no other state has nearly as much to gain as Wisconsin from expanding Medicaid coverage for low-income...
Enrollment of childless adults in BadgerCare is far above the anticipated level, and that’s having a significant effect on the state budget. The much higher than anticipated cost of covering that population means Wisconsin could save far more than previously estimated by taking the enhanced federal funding for Medicaid expansions. That...
Last week the House voted 219-205 to approve the budget resolution for fiscal year 2015 drafted by Wisconsin Representative Paul Ryan, who chairs the House Budget Committee. The bad news is that the House has once again gone on record in support of a budget plan that would make dramatic cuts in programs that promote and protect the...
Economic Stress of Milwaukee’s Working Poor Exacerbated by EITC Cut A recently released report highlights severe income disparities among working families in Milwaukee County and growing challenges for many families, particularly single mothers raising children. The report by researchers at the UW-Milwaukee Employment and Training...
Join us to build a Wisconsin where every child & family thrives.
Your address helps us identify your legislators and the most relevant messages to send you.