President Trump’s executive order to halt federal funding for public broadcasting will save taxpayers nearly $8.5 million annually in reduced federal outlays to public television and radio networks in Wisconsin alone.

Republican leadership on the Wisconsin Joint Committee on Finance has said it will not support any attempt to replace those reductions in federal spending with state tax dollars. But so far — unlike what has happened in Indiana — there is no talk of cutting millions in existing state government funding that flows to the same entities.

The Indiana General Assembly — an outlier so far — preceded Trump’s executive order last month when it removed all state funding for public broadcasting in the state’s two-year budget.

In Wisconsin, in addition to federal funding, at least another $8.6 million on average in annual state appropriations flow to Wisconsin Public Media — a division of the University of Wisconsin-Madison that operates Wisconsin Public Radio and PBS Wisconsin.

Regulations imposed by local governments are being fingered as a costly — and reversible — contributor to $400,000 Wisconsin starter homes that are increasingly unattainable.

Often cited is a groundbreaking 2021 study by the National Association of Home Builders based on surveys of land developers and residential builders: It pegged the direct costs of regulation as constituting 23.8 percent, on average, of the cost of a new single-family home.

On a $400,000 home, the cost of regulation would be $95,000.

Indeed, on an NAHB podcast last December, Washington County Executive Josh Schoemann said he thought the regulatory cost per house was “somewhere between $60- and $90,000” in Washington County. Schoemann, who in recent weeks announced he is running for governor, repeated the figure in January when interviewed by the Badger Institute.

There were 59,466 births in Wisconsin in 2023, the most recent year for which the Wisconsin Department of Health Services has released figures.

The figures record the location of each birth, not where a newborn’s mother resides. The DHS also keeps track of whether births take place at a hospital or birthing facility, or at home.

Clark County had the most home births in 2024, with 234 recorded. Vernon County had the second most at 211, and Eau Claire County had the third most at 159.

The counties where the greatest number of births actually took place were Milwaukee County, with 13,141 births, Dane County, with 6,949 births, and Brown County, with 4,401.

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