MacIver Institute

By Ola Lisowski - Wisconsinites will be a little freer as of tomorrow, April 19th. The Badger State’s Tax Freedom Day is April 19th this year, according to the Tax Foundation.   Read More Wisconsin’s Tax Freedom Day Is April 19th

Highly paid UW System officials won't stop talking about how destitute their universities are. But national rankings on public higher ed funding paint a different picture. Wisconsin consistently ranks in the top 15 of per capita higher education funding - 13th in the latest StatsAmerica ranking of higher ed state and local expenditures, among other stats. The UW System will tell you otherwise, but the sky is not falling on public higher ed in Wisconsin.  Read More MacIver News Minute: Despite Facts, UW Comrades Won’t Stop Pleading Poverty

By M.D. Kittle - It appears Wisconsin’s four-year-old right-to-work law is still being violated by union shop businesses, a MacIver News Service investigation finds.   Read More Union Shops Still Violating Right-To-Work Law, With Impunity

By M.D. Kittle - On Thursday, Kaul dropped his defense of the "dues checkoff" provision in Wisconsin’s right-to-work law, a case appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.  Read More Picking And Choosing: AG Kaul Won’t Defend State In Right-To-Work Appeal

The village already has over a dozen internet providers, and everyone has access to download speeds of at least 30 mbps, according to the Public Service Commission. Most customers in Weston having access to services that provide up to 300 mbps download speeds. (It only takes 5 mbps to watch HD movies on Netflix.)Despite the fact that the village has plenty of internet options already available, they decided the TID needs an astonishing 1,000 mbps speed – and offered to pay TDS $225,000 from the TID to install the fiber optic cables.   Read More Weston TID Refuses To Die – Now Funding Fiber Optics

Special Guest Perspective by Dan O'Donnell - If voters stop believing that the rich don't pay enough in taxes, they might start blaming the Democrats whose policies invariably lead to higher tax rates for everyone.  Read More The Politics of Resentment

The Evers administration continues to deny equal press access to journalists from MacIver News Service, so attorneys for the reporters have intervened.  Read More Gov. Evers Continues to Ban MacIver News Service From Press Briefings, Press Office Emails

By M.D. Kittle - Gov. Tony Evers’ budget creates an exemption that would prohibit the state from seeking recovery of taxpayer-funded birth costs from the biological father, if the mother and father live apart.   Read More Deadbeat Budget? Dads Would Not Have To Pay Back Medicaid-Related Birth Costs Under Evers Budget

The mayor of Racine and his union pals won't let facts get in the way of their hatred of school choice. The city, with the help of the local teachers union, sent out a phony flyer claiming that one-fifth of Racine's property tax levy goes to private voucher schools. It's wrong on many accounts. For one, Racine and other public school districts get to count students they're not even educating to rig the aid they get from the state - in Racine's case, that's a $13.5 million windfall for kids that aren't event attending their failing schools.  Read More MacIver News Minute: Racine Lies About Cost Of School Choice

Today, on Tax Day, taxpayers in Wisconsin and across the country are experiencing the painful annual reminder that the work of reducing the tax burden can and should never stop.  Read More On Tax Day, MacIver Warns Progress On Lowering Tax Burden Can’t Stop Now

By M.D. Kittle - For all the System’s gnashing of teeth about funding cuts and “falling behind,” Wisconsin’s higher education system still fares pretty well in spending comparisons.   Read More Funding Rankings Show Sky Not Falling For UW System

Happy Friday! This week the Joint Finance Committee continued its listening sessions in Oak Creek. The MacIver Institute was there and provided live coverage of it. To keep up-to-date on all the happenings, be sure to follow us on Twitter. It’s Masters Weekend, so while you wait for Tiger Woods to tee off, here are a few important articles for the fiscal conservative, in case you missed it.  Read More In Case You Missed It: Deficit Soaring, Evers’ Tax Plan Could Harm Manufacturers, and Analysis of Paid Family Leave

Gov. Tony Evers and his administration have an interesting definition of “small.” The governor’s $84 billion biennial budget proposal would hike taxes by some $1.3 billion over two years - a "small" tax increase in the Evers vernacular. Last week, Evers’ DPI bureaucrats told the Joint Finance Committee the governor’s budget would include a “slight increase” in property taxes of $44 million. That figure doesn’t come close to the actual impact, by the way. All that small is really adding up.  Read More MacIver News Minute: There’s Nothing “Small” About Tony Evers’ Tax Hikes

Special Guest Perspective by Dan O'Donnell - “Look-at-me” grandstanding is the last refuge of the ineffectual politician; a desperate attempt to pave the road to re-election with good intentions.  With his shameless virtue signaling, Evers is signaling nothing except his own ineptitude.  Read More A Hundred Days of Virtue Signaling

By M.D. Kittle - Racine Mayor Cory Mason and city officials coordinated with the school district and the local teachers union on what critics say is a misinformation campaign about the Racine Parental Choice Program, according to internal emails obtained by the MacIver Institute.   Read More Emails: Racine’s Mayor Mason And Teachers Union Worked Together On School Choice ‘Misinformation’ Campaign

School choice information on property tax impact was inaccurate and wrong The “transparency” initiative was never more than a smear campaign, but Gov. Tony Evers’ budget would expand that initiative statewide April 9, 2019 By Ola Lisowski   Recently, the City of Racine sent out property tax bills to homeowners, as it does every year. …

The word amazing gets tossed around a lot these days. But Conservative Judge Brian Hagedorn’s long-shot victory over liberal Judge Lisa Neubauer in last week’s Supreme Court election was truly amazing. He was significantly outspent, forsaken by some Republicans, and dogged by liberals and the mainstream media for his Christian faith. But the conservative grassroots united to push Hagedorn to a slim victory, keeping the court in conservative control for another four years.  Read More MacIver News Minute: An Amazing Victory For Conservatives

Sen. Marklein tells Thompson providing more state funding to road builders will only make road projects more expensive since they are maxed out on capacity.  Read More Road Builders Struggle With Labor Shortage As Sec. Thompson Tries To Increase Their Workload

The non-partisan, highly respected Legislative Fiscal Bureau told lawmakers during agency briefs on Apr. 3rd that the governor could veto out any language in the budget that would prevent illegal aliens from using newly issued driver's licenses to vote.  Read More Evers Could Use Veto Power To Help Illegals Vote

The Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction was asked about the property tax impact of Gov. Evers' budget. First they said they didn't look at it, then they said they did look at it, then they said it would create a small increase, and finally no impact.  Read More Is That Your Final Answer? – DPI Cannot Give Consistent Answer On Property Taxes