Wisconsinites are increasingly interracial, challenging a deeply embedded and divisive system that relies on racial categories that, across the country, are used to apportion billions of dollars in government programs and subsidies in the name of equity.

In 2023, when the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the use of race in deciding college admissions, the federal Office of Management and Budget was enacting plans beginning with the 2030 Census to further divide the government’s official categories for race, going from five categories to seven.

At the same time, the number of people identifying themselves to the U.S. Census Bureau as being of two or more races increased by 276% from the 2010 to the 2020 Census, according to the bureau’s data. Nearly a third of the 33.8 million people who identified that way were under the age of 18.

In Wisconsin, the number of people identifying as two or more races increased from 195,000, or 3.4% of the state population in 2020 to 437,000, or 7.4% of the population, the following year, according to Census data analyzed by the Badger Institute — a 125% increase in just one year.

Our governor has been on a listening tour, asking what the people of this state want as we head into 2025.

Not much, I think.

Just the chance to buy a modest house that can be heated in an affordable, responsible way. A small place where Wisconsinites can rise up after a decent sleep away from gunshots and close to a job that pays the bills. Close, too, to a really good school where both the kids and the teachers feel safe and hopeful.

The residents of Milwaukee, Dane and Winnebago counties paid the highest effective property tax rates in Wisconsin last year, data from the U.S. Census Bureau shows.

The linked map shows the average effective tax rate — the average amount of residential property taxes actually paid, expressed as a percentage of home value — of the 25 largest counties in the state, calculated from American Community Survey data on median home values and median property taxes. Those counties contain about four-fifths of Wisconsin’s population.

It’s likely the debate over whether to legalize marijuana, at least for medical use, will reignite in the Wisconsin Legislature in the new year, now that the minority leader of the state Senate, Dianne Hesselbein (D-Middleton), said this week she would introduce a medicinal cannabis bill in the next session.

Hesselbein said that legalizing recreational use of the drug wouldn’t pass — a bill to do so in 2023 failed to gain bipartisan support. “But let’s get medicinal out there,” she told Wisconsin Public Radio, adding, “I think we’ve got to get the conversation started once again.” 

The incoming Senate president, Mary Felzkowski (R-Tomahawk) is a supporter of some form of medicinal legalization, and Republicans, who hold majorities in both Assembly and Senate, offered a medical marijuana legalization in early 2024, but Democrats faulted its high level of regulation. Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R-Rochester) has mentioned medical marijuana as a long-shot possibility for a bill in the coming session. 

Look at the trajectory of Wisconsin school levies — the total of the property-tax burden that school districts load onto the backs of homeowners — and the geometry leaps out.

After years of merciless ascent, tax increases moderated in 2011, the year of the Act 10 labor reforms.

“Being in office makes them accountable to me, the one who pays their salary.”

— Dan B., Horicon, 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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