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.
How do Wisconsin's schools compare to those in other states? A new Wisconsin Budget Project analysis asks this question, and finds that Wisconsin, once a national leader in educational performance, now ranks close to the national average in many measures of support for education.Here's an excerpt from the analysis: Wisconsin schools...
The paychecks that public employees get today will be quite a bit smaller than the ones they’ve gotten in the past. That’s because this is the first paycheck that takes into account a provision in the budget repair bill that requires public employees to pay more for their fringe benefits.Beginning teachers, janitors, workers in school,...
Raging debates about reducing the federal deficit, as well as state spending, have reiterated a common point – health care costs are too high. Medicare and Medicaid make up about 23 percent of federal spending, and their costs are growing faster than the overall economy. Because of this, the new "super committee" will likely be looking...
The National Juvenile Justice Network has just released a policy platform on Safe and Effective School Disciplinary Policies and Practices. Sparked by concerns about school safety, in the 1990’s and into the last decade, schools implemented a variety of “get tough” policies and practices that led to a steady rise in the number of...
The state Senate wrapped up work today on a bill enabling Wisconsin to use an estimated $88 million of federal funding to extend unemployment insurance (UI) benefits for up to 13 weeks for the long-term unemployed. The bill, SB 147, could benefit as many as 40,000 Wisconsinites between now and the end of the year. Once the bill is...
Your address helps us identify your legislators and the most relevant messages to send you.