MacIver Institute

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?

How often have you heard from the big-government crowd that Wisconsin needs more money in our schools because IT’S ABOUT THE CHILDREN! Turns out, it isn’t. New data from the Department of Public Instruction show that only 54 percent of revenue for Wisconsin schools goes to instruction, with the rest marked for overhead. The release underscores how little of the $6 billion in annual state education funding actually makes it to the classroom.  Read More MacIver News Minute: Barely Half Of K-12 Funding Actually Goes Into Classroom

MacIver News Service | Feb. 7, 2019 By M.D. Kittle MADISON, Wis. — It’s all quiet on the Wisconsin attorney general front, even as a political ick storm hits Virginia Democrats.  As of early Thursday afternoon, and a full day after Democrat Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring admitted wearing blackface at a party in the …

Special Guest Perspective by Dan O'Donnell - As President Trump calls for unity, Dan O'Donnell notes that Democrats will do nothing but resist him for the next two years.  Read More State of Disunion

By M.D. Kittle and Chris Rochester - Gov. Tony Evers' Transportation task force has spent the past couple of days weighing all kinds of tax-and-fee-increase ideas, but members appear to overwhelmingly support a hike in the state’s gas tax and a return to gas tax indexing.   Read More Transportation ‘Tax Force’ Likes 5.5-Cent Gas Tax Hike, Return Of Indexing

Gov. Tony Evers’ Transportation Stakeholders Task Force is looking more like a Tax Farce - with one hand out and another in taxpayers' pockets. The Task Force met last Thursday and again on Monday and set a revenue-first reform-later agenda. Everything was on the discussion table, from gas tax hikes to heavy truck fees - even a mileage tax and tracking system. You know who wasn’t at the Tax Force table? Taxpayer advocates.  Read More MacIver News Minute: Transportation Task Force Stacked Against Taxpayers

By M.D. Kittle -- There’s hope yet for legislation that would create a dental therapist licensure program in Wisconsin.   Read More Felzkowski: Support Growing For Free-Market Fix To Dental Care Gap

By M.D. Kittle - As Wisconsin’s position in a respected national health ranking continues to fall, the former health care executive who led the creation of a $300 million UW public health endowment fund is asking why so much grant money has been going to liberal advocacy groups.  Read More Justified Questions: Why Is UW Public Health Fund Granting Millions To Liberal Groups?