MacIver Institute

By Chris Rochester - Documents obtained by MacIver News Service through an open records request suggest that district officials were more concerned with tilting the results of a community survey than gauging public sentiment on the spending measure.  Read More Emails Suggest Fix Is In For Cedarburg Referendum Campaign

By Ola Lisowski - A new report shows that the average exam score fell to 20.8 out of 36 points for the class of 2017, down from 21.0 the prior year. Wisconsin students scored an average of 20.5 out of 36 points, the same as last year but now the best score of any state that tests all of its students.  Read More Data Release: Average Wisconsin Score the Best in US, National ACT Score Dips

By M.D. Kittle - They’ve been described as “Medicaid maximization schemes,” revenue manipulations, gimmicks. U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson has a more pointed expression   Read More Johnson: States Committing ‘Legalized Fraud’ With Medicaid Schemes

Special Guest Perspective by Dan O'Donnell - By giving districts that financial flexibility and also pumping more state money into their coffers, while simultaneously holding the line on state taxes through what Walker calls the “prosperity dividend” of his restoration of fiscal sanity in Wisconsin, the state’s education budget is healthier than ever...and it no longer needs to rely on federal handouts.  Read More The ABCs of Governor Walker’s Education Spending

According to a new MacIver analysis, a single payer health care takeover would be a costly power grab by progressive politicians. The analysis finds that it would cost Wisconsin taxpayers at least $30 billion in the first year alone. The left is Wisconsin likes to tout bumper sticker slogans about its health care plans, but they rarely talk about the cost. Now you know what it would cost you.  Read More MacIver News Minute: Single Payer Health Care Would Cost $30 Billion In First Year Alone

By Bill Osmulski - From the tactics and literature accompanying this year’s referendums, it appears the harder the state works to provide property tax relief, the harder local school officials will work to keep local taxpayers from ever benefiting from it.  Read More School Districts Use Projected Tax Cuts To Hide Huge Referendum Tax Hikes

MacIver investigative reporter Matt Kittle joins Oliver Burrows on WXCO in Wausau for their weekly roundup. This week they talk about the price of single payer health care in Wisconsin - $30 billion in just the first year, according to a new MacIver analysis. They also discuss Veterans Electric, which recently prevailed in court over a union seeking the personal information of nonunion employees.  Read More News And Views: Cost Of Single Payer Health Care And Small Business Prevails Over Union

By M.D. Kittle - Wisconsin public employees continue to benefit handsomely from the state’s generous “sick leave conversion program.”   Read More State Government Retirees Cash Out $171.96 Million In Unused Sick Leave

Sen. Ron Johnson calls in to the MacIver studio for a wide-ranging conversation with host Matt Kittle in our latest Newsmakers podcast. They touch on left-wing mobs, liberal incivility, the Kavanaugh confirmation, the Mueller investigation, and states' Medicaid funding gimmicks. This conversation is better than lunch with Kanye!  Read More MacIver Newsmakers With Sen. Ron Johnson: Civility And Accountability In The Swamp

MacIver's Matt Kittle joins John Muir on WTAQ in Green Bay to discuss the latest on the Tavern League's unseemly effort to crack down on competition in the form of the budding wedding barn industry. Also, they talk about MacIver's analysis finding a single payer health care system would cost Wisconsin taxpayers $30 billion in the first year alone.  Read More On The John Muir Show: Wedding Barn Crackdown And The Cost Of Single Payer Healthcare

When the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers union pension fund demanded access to nonunion employees' private contact information, Veterans Electric owner Scott Flaugher drew the line. He recently emerged victorious from a drawn-out legal battle that ended in a court affirming that the union has no right to employees' private information that they could've used to harass and intimate people into joining.  Read More MacIver Newsmakers: Small Business Owner Scores A Win For Workplace Freedom

You might've heard the story about the "free" Medicaid expansion money. Like so many liberal narratives, this one's a fairy tale. The real story of Medicaid expansion states is one of ballooning costs - just ask taxpayers in Minnesota and Ohio.  Read More MacIver News Minute: Walker Was Right To Reject “Free” Medicaid Expansion Money

MacIver's Matt Kittle joins Vicki McKenna on News/Talk 1310 WIBA to discuss a big recent victory for a small electrical contractor business in Colgate, Wis. A judge ruled that a labor union pension fund isn't entitled to the private information of nonunion employees at Veterans Electric, an unsung but possibly milestone decision in the fight for employee rights.  Read More Small Business Owner Wins Worker Rights Fight Against Big Labor

MacIver communications director Chris Rochester joins Steve Scaffidi on WTMJ to discuss the staggering cost of single payer health care. If implemented at the state level in Wisconsin, a government health care takeover would cost $30 billion--double the size of the state budget--in just its first year, a MacIver analysis recently found.  Read More On The Steve Scaffidi Show: The Real Cost Of Single Payer Health Care

By M.D. Kittle - Small businessman Scott Flaugher fought back against big labor - and won. And the electrician’s win could eventually be a victory for worker liberty nationwide.   Read More Small Businessman Wins Worker Rights Fight Against Big Labor

Special Guest Perspective by Dan O'Donnell - Forget about the witch hunt against Kavanaugh himself; the most lasting impact of the battle over his confirmation may well be the resounding crescendo of years of what may be properly termed “Zombie Politics”—the weaponization of hordes of angry (and largely mindless) demonstrators.  Read More Zombie Politics

By most definitions, 16% is a failing grade. But in public education that's effectively passing. Just 16.2% of test takers in Milwaukee Public Schools showed proficiency in math, and scores in other subjects aren't much better. While students have made slow gains, the racial achievement gap has widened. Yet, somehow MPS has once again managed to avoid the dreaded "failing" label.  Read More MacIver News Minute: More Failing Grades At MPS

Sen. Chris Kapenga was the first Republican senator to publicly announce he won't support a proposed "pay to stay" bailout package for struggling paper manufacturer Kimberly-Clark. Kapenga discusses that and a proposed special session to take up the bill, and delves into the Kavanaugh nomination and what it says about our politics on this week's MacIver Newsmakers podcast.  Read More MacIver Newsmakers: Sen. Kapenga On Opposition To Kimberly-Clark Bailout And Kavanaugh Confirmation

Should liberals take Wisconsin to a single-payer, government-run health care system, taxpayers would face $30.2 billion in additional costs in the first year alone.  Read More Single Payer Health Care Takeover Would Cost Wisconsin Taxpayers $30 Billion In First Year Alone

Eric Holder was in Milwaukee on Sept. 18th to endorse Tony Evers for governor and Mandela Barnes for Lt. Governor. “These are men who will focus on those people – the average citizens here in Wisconsin. Not the special interests – not the folks who come from out of state and pour huge amounts of money into campaign coffers,” Holder said. Ironically, there is a great deal of out-of-state money from special interest groups supporting the Evers-Barnes campaign – including from groups affiliated with Holder himself.  Read More Update: National Liberal Network Working To Take Back Wisconsin