Results from the nation’s most comprehensive experiment in offering people a guaranteed basic income offer a warning to those places — including some Wisconsin cities — dabbling with the idea: Unconditional cash payments did nothing to permanently lift participants out of poverty and dependency.

A three-year study of 3,000 people in Illinois and Texas found that those paid a guaranteed income atop any other public benefits worked less, were less likely to work at all, and their households’ income fell relative to those not receiving unconditional cash payments.

The findings suggest that rather than enabling people to overcome financial barriers and find better work, unconditional cash payments detach them from work making it less likely that they will achieve self-sufficiency, potentially harming their longer-term economic well-being, and raising the cost of social welfare programs.

While Milwaukee continues to struggle putting sworn officers on the streets, the police departments in Wisconsin’s other largest cities are at or fast approaching full staffing.

Many of the state’s major departments have over the past four years had to contend with local budget and union contract battles and a surge in baby boomer retirements.

They are still dealing with the fallout from COVID in 2020, which was followed quickly by the statewide rioting after George Floyd’s death in May of that year and the rise of the Black Lives Matter and Defund the Police movements.

The sworn officer numbers in-state suggest a strong rebound in the past year. Departments across Wisconsin currently employ 13,334 officers, according to state Department of Justice data provided to the Badger Institute — up from a decade-low 13,139 officers in 2023 but still far lower than a decade ago. In 2014, departments employed 14,034 officers, or 6.4% more, according to the Department of Justice.

Wisconsinites’ spending on food rose sharply in the years since the COVID-19 pandemic, primarily driven by inflation in prices, data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture show.

Total spending on food grew steadily from $12.17 billion in 1998 to nearly $27 billion in 2019. During 2020, Wisconsin’s total spending dipped slightly to $26.3 billion. This was due primarily to a massive decrease in dining out amid social distancing policies and government lockdowns, and it knocked down spending on food away from home by $1.5 billion. By contrast, spending on food at home in 2020 increased by $0.9 billion. Total spending then rebounded energetically in the following years, reaching a total of $34.2 billion in 2023.

The Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction gets approximately $880 million from the federal government every year. Does Linda McMahon, Donald Trumps’s pick to lead the Education Department, realize how it indoctrinates teachers?

“As a Jefferson County Supervisor, a hunter, and a WDNR certified hunter safety instructor, it remains an important goal to educate and encourage future generations to learn firearms safety, to see the value of harvesting deer as a viable means of population control for the sake of both the deer and human populations, and to enjoy the experience of the outdoors in terms of reaping the benefits of food on the table from field to fork.”

— Dwayne M., Watertown, WI

The Badger Institute, formerly known as the Wisconsin Policy Research Institute (WPRI), has long been at the forefront of the fight for school choice, right to work, welfare reform, tax restructuring, limited government, civil society and so much more. If you appreciate the Institute’s legacy and want to support free markets, opportunity and prosperity, please consider donating today. Your support will help the Institute continue to advocate for conservative principles now and in generations to come.

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