MacIver News – During his first 8 months on the job, Craig Thompson approved 60 single-bid contracts worth over $320 million. That’s just $12 million shy of what Secretary Dave Ross approved during his two years in charge. Read More Single-Bid Contracts Flourish Under Thompson
Special Guest Perspective by John Mielke – It’s a common strategy these days for partisan activists to attempt to discredit supporters of policies they don’t like without actually addressing the merits of the policies in question. Such is the case with prevailing wage. Read More Prevailing Wage Proponents Not Always Forthright
A MacIver Institute Analysis – The 2019-21 Wisconsin state budget is now law. What’s in the document? Read our full analysis here, with in-depth subsections for important issue areas. Read More COMPLETE ANALYSIS: The 2019-21 Wisconsin State Budget
A MacIver Institute Analysis – There is something for everyone to love in this budget – from fiscal conservatives, far-left progressives, Republicans, taxpayers, Democrats, big-government loving special interests, lobbyists, to local governments – and something in this budget for everyone to hate. Read More SUMMARY: The 2019-21 Wisconsin State Budget
By Matt Kittle – At a press event surrounded by cabinet secretaries, Dem lawmakers, and, of course, children, Evers not-so-begrudgingly signed into law an $81.4 billion biennial budget crafted by the Republican-controlled Legislature. The governor made the document a bit more to his liking with 78 line-item vetoes, cutting some GOP initiatives while bolstering k-12 funding by $63 in per-pupil over the life of the budget. Read More Evers Trades In Campaign Promises For A Big-Spending Budget With 78 Vetoes
With any state budget, you win some, you lose some. The budget passed this week by the Republican-controlled Legislature may well have produced a record number of winners and losers — some landing in both categories. Read More Winners And Losers In The 2019-21 State Budget
By M.D. Kittle — Different day, same result. The Republican-controlled Senate passed the $83.6 billion biennial budget Wednesday, a day after their colleagues in the Assembly did the same. Read More Senate Republicans Narrowly Pass Budget, Evers And His Veto Pen Await
By M.D. Kittle — Gov. Tony Evers won’t say whether he’ll veto the entire Republican budget bill. The Democrat on Thursday told reporters he won’t decide until he knows what’s in the $81.6 billion biennial spending plan, until the Republican-controlled Legislature passes it next week. Read More Evers, Liberals Kind Of Like Republican Budget — Is There Something Wrong With This Picture?
Dan O’Donnell examines Marquette University’s decision to no longer require entrance exams amid the broader push to devalue objective academic standards in the name of diversity. Read More The Hard Bigotry of No Expectations
By Ola Lisowski & Chris Rochester – Wisconsin’s powerful budget-writing committee will be taking up agency budgets for the Department of Health Services (DHS) and Department of Children and Families (DCF) Tuesday. Read More Before the Vote: What to Know About Health Care and Welfare in the 2019-21 Budget