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.
One of the surprising changes to the budget bill was the Joint Finance Committee (JFC) amendment that makes newly unemployed workers ineligible for jobless benefits for the first week of their unemployment. It is expected to reduce benefits paid to unemployment insurance (UI) claimants by between $41 million and $56 million per year,...
Spending for collection of child support by counties will decline by $12.5 million in the 2011-13 biennium. Because counties are being squeezed fiscally from all directions, it’s highly unlikely that they will be able to offset the substantial budget cut. Milwaukee County alone estimated that it would have to cut 38 workers in 2012, or...
The budget bill increases taxes for low-income families in two ways. First, it cuts the state Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) for families with two or more children. Second, it will gradually reduce the Homestead property tax credit by repealing the law that adjusts the size of the credit and the eligibility standards for inflation.The...
Reductions in Youth Aids Come at the Wrong TimeThe Youth Aids funding concept was established in 1980 as a way to both control state spending for juvenile correctional services and incentivize counties to develop alternatives to sending delinquent youth to the state juvenile system. Youth Aids funds are apportioned to counties based on...
The FoodShare program (also known informally as food stamps) provides a valuable source of funding for low income individuals and families to purchase food. In May 2011, more than 800,000 people in Wisconsin received FoodShare. About 0.2 percent of those individuals were lawfully present adult immigrants who have lived in the U.S. less...
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