Measuring Wisconsin: What Does it Mean?

Measuring Success: Benchmarks for a Competitive Wisconsin was released this week with the usual emphasis on taxes. Most of the stories typically focus on income, such as in this WEAU story, Wisconsin National Ranking In Household Income Continues Falling, or taxes.

Findings I found interesting are:

• Our growth in per capita income has not kept pace with the nation (p. 6). Perhaps it is a result of:
  • losing union manufacturing jobs to overseas competition, and
  • the exploitation of immigrant labor, which is far less costly than traditional labor in areas ranging from the building trades to agriculture.
• Our share of U.S. agricultural income fell from 2.7% to 2.4% from 2992 to 2004 (p10). This means that the tax breaks and incentives provided by the legislature for farmers failed to keep land in production as it was converted to more urban and suburban uses.
• Wisconsin violent crime continues to decline and looks significantly better than our neighboring states and the nations as a whole (p. 13).
  • So much for the need for conceal and carry and the death penalty as deterrents.
  • A safe state is undoubtedly the product of a combination of higher taxes for law enforcement, social service programs that combat poverty and crime, and quality education.
  • We pay more in taxes but we get results, even with the significant problems in Milwaukee hurting the state averages.
• While we are below our neighbors and the nation in the number of citizens living in poverty, families living in poverty increased 2%  in the past several years (p. 16).
  • Undoubtedly some of this growth is attributed to migration of low income families into our state, a trend that has been apparent in most Wisconsin cities for the past twenty years.
• Wisconsin students test better than the nation and all of our neighbors except Minnesota (p. 20). We get value for our school taxes, and this correlates with how our students test on the SATS and ACTS, high school graduation rates, but not college graduation rates.
  • It is pleasing that our public schools do better than the competition, but we have to find out why we have a higher college dropout rate.
    • It could be the cost of a college education in Wisconsin.
    • It could be the 'Playboy factor' -too much drugs, sex and rock n' roll. Or maybe it is just the beer.
• We are 12th nationally in state and local taxes and fees, but we are a disturbing 5th when the tax burden is compared to income (pp 27-28)
  • Absent from the study are figures on per capita expenditures, where if memory serves me correctly, we are about 19th as a state in national rankings.
  • The problem stems from a low return on our federal tax dollars, principally a result of an absence of military bases and defense contractors in the Badger State.
• Our state bond ranking is a disgraceful AA-, much worse than our neighbors (p. 29). This is a result of no savings in the years preceding 2002 when the state was flush with tax revenues but had less than $2,000 in its "rainy day account.'
  • The city of Madison, by comparison, with a significantly smaller budget had over $12M set aside for an emergency drop in revenues, or a hurricane Katrina-type disaster.
  • In the subsequent year, while focusing on guns, gays and God, the Republican dominated legislature has done little to rectify this problem.
• While Wisconsin's public employment has declined per capita, we are still higher than the national average and our neighbors (p. 30).
  • This can be a deceiving number when used by those who claim that government is too large and inefficient.  For example, Madison operates its own golf courses, which are paid for by greens fees and not taxpayers' dollars. The courses could be closed, the employees discharged, and it would not have any impact on the bottom line in terms of taxes.  In the meantime the city of Madison has one the best public golf systems in the country.
• Business growth, measured by new business start-ups, was very modest (.9%) and ranked last compared to our neighbors and was significantly below the national rate of 1.6% (p. 33).
  • Proving once again that tax cuts are not the panacea for economic growth.
  • My guess is that the greatest disincentive to business growth in Wisconsin is not taxes or regulation, per se, but too much uncertainty. In my experience, uncertainty at the state and local levels as to the future of regulation and the stability of government is most important. Republicans and Democrats are equally guilty.
• Spending on research and development lags significantly in Wisconsin (p. 38). There is enough blame to go around here. The private sector needs to be more dynamic and the state must provide more funding for our research facilities in our universities.
  • Seventeenth-century science, reminiscent of the days of the Salem witch trials is not becoming in a capitalistic setting, Mr. Gard.