MacIver Institute

Dan O’Donnell systematically debunks Governor Evers’ claims that marijuana decriminalization will solve racial disparities in Wisconsin’s prison population.  Read More Evers’ Decriminalization Lies Go to Pot

By M.D. Kittle - After months of delays and foot-dragging by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, a government watchdog group is taking the VA and its “scandal-ridden” Tomah Medical Center to court.   Read More Watchdog Sues Federal Agency For Records In Tomah VA Medicine Failure

By M.D. Kittle - State Rep. Mary Felzkowski wants to fix a woeful statistic and, true to her conservative roots, she wants to use the free market to do it.   Read More MacIver Newsmakers Podcast: Rep. Mary Felzkowski Takes On Wisconsin’s Dental Care Gap

The jobless rate for black and Hispanic Americans fell to record lows in 2018. That should be cause for excitement, right? Especially from poverty-fighting Dems like U.S. Rep. Gwen Moore. But she sounded unimpressed with the long list of positive economic news noted by a Republican colleague at a recent House Ways and Means Committee hearing.  Read More MacIver News Minute: For Rep. Gwen Moore, Rising Prosperity For Minorities Is “Blah, Blah, Blah”

By Ola Lisowski - Wisconsin’s students have long been plagued by racial disparities in graduation rates, at times posting the largest achievement gap between black and white students in the country. A new dataset shows that the achievement gap is still prevalent, with the graduation rate for white students 24.2 percentage points higher than for black students.   Read More Wisconsin’s Exploding High School Discipline Problem And Other Trends

By M.D. Kittle - After two meetings and tax-and-spend recommendations from his "hand-picked" transportation task force, Gov. Tony Evers last week “signaled” gas tax hikes could be in his budget proposal. Surprised? Fiscal hawks in the Legislature certainly aren’t.   Read More ‘So, We Started With, Obviously, A Gas Tax Increase’

By Ola Lisowski - Today, we present the next scorecard in our series Our Wisconsin, the MacIver Institute’s scorecards to measure Wisconsin’s progress. This edition examines welfare. We keep track how the people of our great state are faring, from weekly unemployment insurance claims to FoodShare rolls.  Read More Our Wisconsin: Welfare Scorecard

February 15, 2019 | In case you missed it, here are six stories from this week for the fiscally-concerned conservative.  Read More In Case You Missed It: Wisconsin Reduces Fossil Fuel Use, Medicare-for-All Gets Called Out, and Wage Levels Rise with Inflation

By Ola Lisowski - More Wisconsin high school students are graduating in four years, and there’s good news on Advanced Placement participation and attendance, according to an expansive new data release from the Department of Public Instruction. At the same time, the report shows a troubling increase in student behavioral issues, with an increase in campus cases of assaults, drug use, weapons violations and other endangering behavior leading to a significant increase in school expulsions.   Read More Data Release: Expulsions Up, Enrollment Down In Wisconsin High Schools

Wisconsin lawmakers should approach the state budget with a physicians' maxim: first, do no harm. As Rep. John Nygren put it, things are going well, let's not mess it up. So why does Gov. Tony Evers insist on a middle class tax cut that also raises taxes on manufacturers? Hitting manufacturers with higher taxes now, just as this sector is hitting its stride in Wisconsin, is like giving a patient measles to cure mumps.  Read More MacIver News Minute: Tax Hike on Manufacturers the Wrong Prescription for Wisconsin’s Economy

By M.D. Kittle - Make no mistake, taxpayers of all income levels — not just the wealthy — would pay dearly should the fantastical, socialist Green New Deal ever becomes law.    Read More Green Dreamers Shrug Off Pain Their Green New Deal Would Create

By Chris Rochester - Eight years ago this week, Gov. Scott Walker introduced Act 10, his landmark collective bargaining reform legislation that came to be known as Act 10. With all its myriad successes, will Gov. Evers work to dismantle it?  Read More Act 10 at 8: It’s Still Working

By Bill Osmulski - Wisconsin’s use of coal for energy production dropped 32 percent between 2005 and 2016 according to EIA’s data. Today Wisconsin gets 20 percent of its energy from non-carbon sources.  Read More Forget Paris – Wisconsin Already Shifting Away From Fossil Fuels

Dan O’Donnell on what Wisconsin’s newest millionaire can teach us about Democrat tax plans  Read More Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?

When announcing a lawsuit against painkiller maker Purdue Pharma, Dane Co. executive Joe Parisi spoke of the trail of destruction the opioid crisis has left in its wake. But what he failed to mention was the cozy relationship the county's largest employer, UW-Madison, had with Purdue during the rise of the crisis. That includes $1.6 million in grant funding - but critics say the UW's pain group conducted research advocacy, essentially serving as marketers rather than scientists.  Read More MacIver News Minute: UW’s Lucrative Relationship With Opioid Maker Purdue Pharma

By M.D. Kittle - Gov. Tony Evers’ plan to cut middle-income taxes by raising taxes on Wisconsin’s vital manufacturing sector is making some employers nervous.   Read More Lawmaker: Evers’ Tax Cut Plan Sends Chilling Message To Booming Manufacturing Sector

By M.D. Kittle - In April, when Dane County joined the dozens of Wisconsin counties suing pharmaceutical manufacturers of painkillers, civic leaders laid out the deep and wide damages caused by the opioid epidemic.   Read More Who Pays For The Pain? UW’s Forgotten Financial Relationship With Purdue Pharma

February 8, 2019 | In case you missed it, here are six stories from this week for the fiscally-concerned conservative.  Read More In Case You Missed It: DOT Pitches New Taxes and Fees, Socialists Pitch Green New Deal, SJW’s UW Public Health Grant

Special guest perspective by Bill Lueders - The more we know about the efforts by officials in Racine to shield public records from public view, the more outrageous it seems.  Read More Racine Officials Showed Bad Judgement on Records

By M.D. Kittle - State Rep. John Nygren believes Wisconsin politicians should manage the state budget with the physicians’ maxim: First do no harm.   Read More MacIver Newsmakers: State Rep. John Nygren Asks, Why Mess With Success?