State agencies have begun their rush through a regulatory back door that will almost certainly cost owners of businesses large and small in Wisconsin tens of millions of dollars.

Exhibit A: a proposal by the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection to increase the fee for licensing a livestock market from $420 to $7,430.

First reported by Wisconsin Public Radio, the news comes in the wake of a July Supreme Court decision that eliminated rulemaking authority of the Legislature’s Joint Committee for Review of Administrative Rules.

Agencies are now advancing more than two dozen rules, nearly all of them blocked at one time by the Administrative Rules Committee because of their negative effects on citizens and businesses.

State Rep. Adam Neylon, co-chair of the committee, told the Badger Institute the fee increases embedded in several of the rule changes are little more than unlegislated, agency-driven taxation.

Why was Gov. Tony Evers so swift in rejecting a big stream of money from private donors for Wisconsin children’s education?

Evers spent his career in education and boasts of it. He likes being photographed in schools. He branded 2025 the “year of the kid.”

Yet asked the other day about whether he’d wave his hand to let Wisconsin taxpayers use a new federal tax credit for education-related donations, the governor slammed the door. He told a reporter it would be “catastrophic” for public schools, even though the new program allows donations to go to public school students for, say, tutoring, technology, books or other extra help.

Yet Evers said no. Why?

Evers’ rejection is early: Only four other governors have weighed in. A Republican in Tennessee and a Democrat in North Carolina opted their states into the program, and Democrats in Oregon and New Mexico opted out. Everyone else is still making up their mind.

Within the Fox Valley area, the largest inter-county commuter flow is between Outagamie County, home of Appleton, and Winnebago County, location of Neenah, Menasha and Oshkosh. More people who live in Outagamie County work in Winnebago County than the other way around.

In the Madison metropolitan area, Dane County, home of Madison, is the destination for about 9,800 commuters from Rock County, home of Janesville and Beloit, while 3,100 people commute the other way, from Dane to Rock.

The Wisconsin Assembly voted Thursday to order state government employees return to state agency offices.

The Badger Institute found last spring that as many as half of the state’s employees were still working remotely — and that no one in government had an accurate count of who was staying out of the office.

The Assembly voted 51 to 44, on party lines, Thursday to pass AB 39, requiring state employees to put in at least 80 percent of their required work hours in person. Exempted are those whose duties were normally outside an office before the pandemic.

The Badger Institute is registered in support of the bill.

More than half of the employees in the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development and more than 40% in the Department of Administration still work remotely, five years after COVID sent them home.

“One factor that has drastically changed for young people today is the increased intensity of high school sports. Club sports/year-round specialization has exploded for our high school students with many having goals of college scholarships. Their work ethic has transferred to sports.”

— Sue Saller, Milwaukee

“I think we put an overemphasis on activities that aren’t work. I know that more parents let their kids ‘off the hook’ on doing chores due to wanting them to engage more fully in school and sports achievement.”

— Darci Strobel, Neenah

“We cannot abstract or excuse the very real and ongoing harm humans have inflicted on the lands that sustain us. While some of these local ordinances may be imperfect or symbolic, policymakers of all persuasions should be actively engaged in crafting regulatory frameworks that balance the immediate needs of humanity with its long-term viability.

“If we truly want to preserve our way of life, we must first preserve the systems that support it.”

— Matthew Franey, Fox Point

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