Money wasted on Hop while bus access for people who really need it is at risk

Milwaukee County’s bus network has swerved back from the fiscal brink, one tire halfway over the void as officials shuffle money, trim back some routes’ hours and wonder what they’ll do next year.

Pay attention, Wisconsin taxpayers: You’re financing a lot of this, so there’s a big question you’ll want to ask. Hint: It involves the City of Milwaukee’s downtown toy that runs on overhead wires, rails in the street and egregious sums of money.

The crisis at Milwaukee County Transit System leads to real turmoil for people who don’t need more of it.

There was the Wauwatosa man who’s legally blind from a genetic disorder and uses the bus to get to work. The high schoolers who rely on a bus to get to one of Milwaukee Public Schools’ few bright spots. The guy in his 60s scrimping while he gets a tech-college degree.

Number of UW math degrees plummeting in age of AI

As math proficiency continues to decline in Wisconsin schools, the Legislature is considering a plan to improve numeracy, or the ability to work with numbers in daily life.

Lawmakers filed Assembly Bill 615 last month after the release of more disappointing reports about the math skills of elementary and high school students in the state and around the county.

The reports come at a time when considerably fewer students nationally and at Universities of Wisconsin are graduating with mathematics degrees — but when mathematics departments are stressing the discipline’s importance in the age of artificial intelligence.

Wisconsin is attempting to follow the lead of at least seven other states — Alabama, Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Louisiana, Virginia and West Virginia — that have passed laws requiring schools to test for math comprehension and to offer remedial help, including tutoring, to raise overall test scores.

A band of 18 state representatives and senators have called upon on Wisconsin’s congressional delegation to introduce legislation that would repeal the requirement that drivers in Kenosha, Milwaukee, Ozaukee, Racine, Sheboygan, Washington, and Waukesha counties undergo biennial vehicle emissions testing.

In a letter sent Tuesday, the lawmakers assert, “We believe the continuance of this program will not significantly improve air quality and reduce emissions, but instead continue to tax Wisconsinites for a program that has outlived its usefulness.”

A 2023 analysis from the Badger Institute proves that assertion to be well founded.

Most property taxpayers in larger Wisconsin counties paid somewhat more in 2024 than in 2023, although some — those in Washington, Jefferson, Rock, Kenosha and Dodge — saw decreases.

Dramatically increasing home values across the state have spurred taxpayer backlash in some communities where residents are afraid higher assessments will result in higher tax bills as well. That is not necessarily the case because effective tax rates are going down as assessments skyrocket, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau.

According to the Department of Natural Resources, Wisconsin hunters harvested 90,671 white-tailed deer in the opening weekend of the state’s gun hunting season.

The Badger Institute 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.

The Institute never has, and never will, accept government funding. We gratefully welcome your online donation or email Mike Nichols, President.

The Badger Institute is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt nonprofit organization funded solely by the generosity of foundations, companies and individuals.

Badger Institute
700 W. Virginia St., Suite 301
Milwaukee, WI 53204