Wisconsin

As of July 7, 2022, Wisconsin had reported 9,335 COVID-19 cases per 100,000 people over the previous seven days, which ranks Wisconsin 36th-highest in the nation. Since the start of the pandemic, Wisconsin has reported 1,734,112 total cases to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). That’s 29,783 cases per 100,000 people, which ranks Wisconsin 10th-highest in the nation for total cases.

As of July 7, 2022, Wisconsin had reported 10,675,225 vaccine doses administered to the CDC. That’s 183,346 doses per 100,000 people, which ranks Wisconsin 22nd-highest in the nation.

At the start of the pandemic, Governor Tony Evers issued a stay-at-home order. It began on March 25, 2020 and lasted 35 days, making it the 14th-shortest shutdown in the nation. Wisconsin began its “phase one” reopening on April 29. Amid Governor Evers’ plans for further reopening, the Wisconsin Supreme Court struck down his executive stay-at-home order. The governor announced indoor capacity limits for businesses in October, but a judge also blocked this order. The state is now fully “reopened.” This paragraph was last updated on October 1, 2021. For the more information, please see the New York Times.

Wisconsin’s private employment is down 72,500 jobs, or 2.8 percent, since January 2020. According to the latest Bureau of Labor Statistics data release, the other services industry experienced the greatest percentage decline in employment across the state, reporting 6.1 percent (9,300) fewer jobs since January. The largest total number of jobs lost was 21,300 (5.2 percent) in the health care and social assistance sector.

The pandemic’s economic downturn had notably disparate effects on different workers, industries, and racial groups. For example, the accommodation and food services industry was hit particularly hard and unemployment rates were typically higher for Black and Latino Americans. Learn more about the variations in Wisconsin’s finances, economics, demographics, and politics on it’s state fiscal brief page.

Wisconsin’s Budget Actions

Governor Evers has not released a supplemental budget proposal (the state uses a biennial budget). He gave his state of the state address in February 2022.

Wisconsin enacted its FY 2022-2023 biennial budget in July 2021. The enacted budget included $19.1 billion in general fund spending for FY 2022 $20.3 billion in FY 2023. The budget also included a series of tax cuts, including reducing property taxes and lowering the state’s second highest income tax rate from 6.27 percent to 5.3 percent.

Under the American Rescue Plan, Wisconsin will receive $2.5 billion in direct state fiscal aid and $1.9 billion in local government aid from the federal government. As of January 2022, Wisconsin had spent part of its ARP funds on economic development and broadband expansion.

According to NASBO, Wisconsin’s recent expenditure totals (general fund spending/total spending, including federal transfers) were:

Wisconsin’s total state tax revenue collections from the second quarter of calendar year 2020 to the first quarter of 2021 (combined) were 2.1 percent higher than over the previous (combined) four quarters. State tax revenue changes varied significantly across the states during this period, ranging from a 39.3 percent decline in Alaska to a 12.3 percent increase in Idaho. Overall, 18 states of 50 states reported lower revenue collections over that period in than the prior four quarters (download the state tax revenue data here).

Total tax revenues in fiscal year 2020 were 1.1 percent higher than in fiscal year 2019. (Wisconsin’s fiscal year, like most state fiscal years, runs from July to June.) Most states experienced revenue declines in fiscal year 2020. A state’s tax revenue might be up, down, or steady depending on the prevalence of the novel coronavirus, the state’s major economic sectors, and its revenue structure, among other things. Additionally, while all states moved tax deadlines during the pandemic, different states reported this ‘shifted’ revenue in different quarters and fiscal years. This might also affect a state’s reported revenue growth.

Learn how to access and download state revenue collections data and revenue forecasting data for every state at the State and Local Finance Initiative’s data subscription page.

From January 2020 to May 2022, Wisconsin lost 20,500 state and local public jobs, a 5.4 percent decline.