Research Reports
The Public Policy Forum publishes reports,
research briefs, and major studies across a range of topics.
Visit our Issues page to access reports
by topic; here you can access all reports by title, date,
or type (full report or research brief).
Recent Reports
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| People Speak Poll: Metro Milwaukee Citizens Concerned about Health Care Costs and Reform |
December 9, 2011
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| research brief
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| Earlier this fall, the seventh People Speak poll solicited opinions from 436 residents of southeast Wisconsin about health care policy issues. Among the key findings is that a majority (62%) agree with Wisconsin joining 25 other states in challenging the constitutionality of the federal health care reform law.
When the U.S. Supreme Court recently agreed to hear the case next spring, it specified the constitu-tional issue under consideration would be the law’s “individual mandate,” or requirement that all Amer-icans purchase health insurance or face a financial penalty. Respondents to the poll, however, do not seem to base their support of the legal challenge on the mandate provision. |
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| Assembling the Parts: An examination of Milwaukee’s economic development landscape |
November, 2011
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| full report
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| In a 2006 analysis of City of Milwaukee economic development efforts, the Public Policy Forum lamented the absence of a comprehensive economic plan, suggesting such a plan was needed to mobilize the city’s business, community, and public sector leaders behind a unified agenda. Five years later, those leaders now appear fully mobilized. City government recently completed a comprehensive plan to guide policy, land use, and development decisions – the first such plan to cover every square mile of Milwaukee. In this report, the Forum re-examines Milwaukee’s economic development landscape. |
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| 14th Annual Comparative Analysis of Racine Unified School District |
October, 2011
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| full report
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| For dedicated readers, this 14th Annual Comparative Analysis of the Racine Unified School District will look quite different from the previous 13 reports. For the first time, we compare the district’s performance to its own goals, as well as to its peers and to its past performance. The peer comparison tables, which have been the hallmark of previous reports, appear in Appendix I. The body of the report is focused on the district goals established in 2009 as the North Star vision. |
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| Technology Transfer in Southeast Wisconsin: Maximizing Local Economic Impacts |
October, 2011
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| full report
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| For more than four decades, America’s economists, management consultants, investors, and futurists have discussed the need to transition from a manufacturing economy, based on skills, to a “knowledge economy,” based on ideas and innovation. One specific facet of a thriving 21st century knowledge economy is the existence of an infrastructure that is adept at transferring technologies developed in research laboratories to those who will use them to create businesses and jobs in the local economy. Does southeast Wisconsin possess such an infrastructure? If not, how might we create one? |
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| Budget Brief: Milwaukee County 2012 Executive Budget |
October, 2011
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| full report
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| In a series of budget briefs and reports produced during the past three years, the Public Policy Forum consistently has urged Milwaukee County’s leaders to recognize the structural nature and depth of their fiscal problems and to develop a strategic approach to address them.
In the pages that follow, we provide greater detail and analysis of the recommended budget’s priorities and key features mentioned above, as well as other elements that speak to the county’s long-term financial health. It is our hope that this analysis will be widely read by county supervisors, county employees, advocacy groups, taxpayers, and citizens, and that its insights will contribute to a more objective and informed 2012 budget debate. |
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| Budget Brief: 2012 Proposed City of Milwaukee Budget |
October, 2011
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| full report
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| The 2012 proposed budget for the City of Milwaukee represents a second consecutive year of relative calm before a likely return of dark fiscal storm clouds within the next two years. Dramatic savings related to employee benefits allow the city to offset state budget impacts and get by, for the most part, without significant cuts in valued services. Massive spikes in property tax levy-supported pension payments, however, as well as the loss of federal funds and flat or declining state revenues, pose a potentially serious threat to city services in 2013 and beyond. |
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| Public Schooling in Southeast Wisconsin |
September, 2011
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| full report
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| For the past 25 years, the Public Policy Forum has compiled and analyzed data from southeast Wisconsin’s public school districts to produce an annual report on trends in educational performance and demographics. This year’s report, however, may take on greater importance than those of previous years in light of the monumental impacts of the new state budget and budget repair bill. |
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| 2010-2011 Southeastern Wisconsin School District Performance (pull-out poster) |
September, 2011
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| full report
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| Pull-out poster providing Southeastern Wisconsin school performance in an easily readable format. Performance of the K-12 school districts includes enrollment, district finances, student participation and student performance measures. |
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| Property Values and Taxes in Southeast Wisconsin |
August, 2011
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| full report
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| This report is an annual Public Policy Forum publication that analyzes property values and property taxes within the seven-county southeast Wisconsin region. The report’s primary objective is to measure trends in property values – one of the region’s most critical indicators of economic health – and examine how those trends impact the capacity of local governments and school districts to raise the revenues required to deliver essential public services. This year’s report first analyzes 2010 property values, with specific consideration of multi-year trends. We then examine 2011 budgeted tax levies and tax rates of southeast Wisconsin counties and municipalities to explore the relationship between valuations and taxes. |
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| Southeastern Wisconsin Property Taxes 2011 (pull-out poster) |
August, 2011
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| full report
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| Pull-out poster providing Southeastern Wisconsin property value and tax increases in an easily readable format. |
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