In Madison, WI, that is.
In response to my post on the effort to eliminate the Bureau of Science Services in the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, reader Ed Hanson rises to the defense of the effort.
Category Archives: Wisconsin
No Time for Scientists – Wisconsin Edition
With apologies to Mac Hyman …and Andy Griffith
Leaders at the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) are proposing elimination of the Bureau of Science Services within the department.
“Wisconsin job creation rank falls to 38th in U.S.”
That’s the title of an article by John Schmid and Kevin Crowe in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel today, based upon just-released state level data on the Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW):
Wisconsin gained 27,491 private-sector jobs in the 12 months from September 2013 through September 2014, a 1.16% increase that ties Wisconsin with Vermont and Iowa at a rank of 38th among the 50 states in the pace of job creation during that period.
Wisconsin Employment Surge “Benchmarked” Away
Wisconsin private nonfarm payroll employment only 112.6 thousands (45%) below Governor Walker’s goal of 250,000 net new jobs.
Some Government Workers Will Get Pay Raises in Wisconsin
From State troopers who protect Governor given $4 an hour pay raise:
Just after Republican lawmakers announced they were rejecting raises for rank-and-file state troopers, Gov. Scott Walker’s administration granted $4-an-hour raises to the State Patrol officers
responsible for protecting the governor.…
(Not) The Leader of the Pack, Again: Wisconsin and Her Neighbors
Political Calculations criticizes me for comparing Wisconsin economic performance against Minnesota, but not other neighbors.
Normally, we’re entertained by Chinn’s analysis, since it frequently involves comparisons of the job growth between Wisconsin and its western neighbor Minnesota since Walker was sworn into office in January 2011, which we find funny because of all the states surrounding Wisconsin, the composition of Wisconsin’s economy is much less similar to Minnesota than it is to any of the states with which the state shares waterfront footage on Lake Michigan, which is something that one might think an economics professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison would know.
[Update, 3/1] I have calculated a similarity index for MN, IL, MI vs. WI, based on output composition. It’s an unweighted measure of absolute sector differences, (Σ|xWI-xi|)/n . The indices are 0.010, 0.013, 0.007, for MN, IL, MI, respectively. In other words, MI is the most similar to WI, MN next. And, interestingly, MI far outpaces WI, in Figure 1 below.
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Governor Walker Proposes to Restructure Debt Thereby Increasing Total Taxpayer Cost
As the state’s fiscal position becomes more dire, in large part due to the tax cuts implemented last year, Governor Walker proposes to delay some debt payments.
Walker vs. Walker
Update: PolitiFact rates Governor Walker’s claim as “…not only inaccurate, but ridiculous. Pants on Fire.”
First, it was a drafting error. Now it’s not.
Just a Typo in the Wisconsin Budget Proposal
As of this morning, here was the Governor’s proposed change in language for the University of Wisconsin system in the budget, from this document (page 546):
Implications for Economic Growth of Governor Walker’s Proposed Higher-Ed Funding Cuts
From Foxnews:
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker is calling for steep cuts to the University of Wisconsin System, while offering the network more freedom in exchange, … [H]is university plan … would cut funding by $300 million over two years…
Source: Berger-Fisher (2013).