• Embed Doc
  • Copy Link
  • Readcast
  • Collections
  • CommentGo Back
Download
 
   
During theDoyle years, thestate failed tocreate new jobswhile descendingto Alabama-levelwages.
By Thomas Heftyand John Torinus Jr.
 
O
ur state motto is “Forward,”but Wisconsin is fallingbehind in the economic raceto create jobs and raise familyincomes.
 As we’ll show here, Wisconsin is lagging itsown economic performance of the 1990s andlosing ground to other states—especially toother upper Midwest states like Minnesota, Iowaand Illinois. It is even failing to meet its owngoals—established in 1997 with much fanfareby a blue ribbon commission—for ramping upthe state economy. Although our political andmedia leaders ignore thesefailings, Wisconsin residentsintuitively understand howour economic anemia hassapped their incomes and diminished theiropportunities.Since 2005, Wisconsin has experiencedgrowing out-migration. Our citizens have votedwith their feet, moving to states where theyforesee a better future.In the end, gauging economic successis really pretty simple for most people. Is Wisconsin gaining jobs? Are family incomesrising? Are wages increasing? In a word: No. Yet our state officials go out of their way(perhaps understandably) to emphasize thegood news about Wisconsin business whileignoring the bad.Consider how officials in the Doyleadministration have massaged theunemployment rate to make Wisconsin jobperformance look better than it really is.
Beginning in 1988 and ending in 2006, the
state unemployment rate was lower than thenational average. That was good news. But asthe Wisconsin advantage began to erode, thestate Department of Workforce Developmentcompensated by re-estimating the size of theworkforce.In one month, 30,000 unemployed workersdisappeared from the data, thelargest one-month drop in recenthistory. The unemployment rateshowed an apparent (but unreal)dip. Presto, once again Wisconsinunemployment appeared to bebelow the national average.But the surprising drop didn’t go unnoticedby the watchful economists at the FederalReserve. In July 2008, the Federal ReserveBank of Minneapolis publicly referred to Wisconsin’s new method of counting the jobless as “rosy or smoky” reporting. The Fednoted that the Wisconsin unemployment ratewas inconsistent with other economic data,such as growing food stamp usage.Despite the questionable reporting, thestate Department of Workforce Developmentregularly issued press releases congratulating
9
Economics
From the left,right and center,the view isequally grim.
 
the Doyle administration on its economicsuccess. This occurred as the 2008 legislativeelections drew closer.In August, the economy was headed into asteep recession, but Secretary Roberta Gassmanproclaimed, “The latest labor market figuresshow conditions improving.... Despite theeconomic difficulties nationally, Wisconsin isdoing relatively well overall.”Close observers felt otherwise.
The surprise is that the sobering assessment
transcends the usually polarized debate inMadison. From the left, right and center, theview is equally grim. Certainly, the policyrecommendations differ among these analysts,but they share the same sense of worriedurgency: Wisconsin has to do more to stoke itseconomy.From the left, the Center on WisconsinStrategy published its annual report in late 2008with this unhappy summary:“The national economy has grown morerapidly than Wisconsin’s, leaving the state’sper capita income more than $2,500 behindthe national [average]. The gap separating Wisconsin and the United States emerged in the1980s, but strong growth during the late 1990shelped Wisconsin close the gap. Unfortunately, Wisconsin is beginning to lag again as thenational economy outperforms the state’s.”From the center, the nonpartisan Competitive Wisconsin group (it includes both businessand labor representatives) reached a similarconclusion in its 2008 benchmark report:“Wisconsin has moved further away from thenational average in per capita income, numberof new jobs created and number of new privatebusinesses.”From the right, various business publicationshave been uniformly unimpressed with Wisconsin’s performance. In the 2009 Chief Executive magazine survey of “best and worststates for business,” Wisconsin ranked 43rd,down 10 positions from 2007. The Forbes 2008ranking also had Wisconsin at 43rd. The 2008CNBC overall ranking of top states for businessranked Wisconsin at 37th. The conservativeLaffer State Economic Competitiveness Indexplaced Wisconsin at 41st.The consistency of these assessments can’tbe ignored. Among the 50 states, Wisconsingenerally ranks below average in economicperformance—sometimes substantially below. And its recent performance is sliding downward.
10 Wisconsin Interest
Economics
The Center on WisconsinStrategy reported the nationaleconomy was growing fasterthan Wisconsin’s, puttingthe state’s per capita incomemore than $2,500 behind thenational average.
of 00

Leave a Comment

You must be to leave a comment.
Submit
Characters: ...
You must be to leave a comment.
Submit
Characters: ...