While the rhetoric is often embarrassed by reality, the fact is that Wisconsin is pretty distinctive. Wisconsin has among the most abundant supply of all kinds of public goods. And it has a fiercely defended tradition of policy innovation. Under the Wisconsin Idea, University researchers and educators are not just welcome, but expected , to play an active role in public life. Average wages here have fallen faster than stagnating national wage trends.
Racial differences are now among the most pronounced.
While white child poverty in Wisconsin is the fifth lowest in the country, for example, black child poverty is the second highest, second only to Louisiana. Environmental degradation is proceeding rapidly. The prolonged crisis of family farms, and one of the most vociferous and powerful developer lobbies in the nation, has led to unusually high rates of farmland loss to be followed by unusually intense suburban sprawl. Wisconsin s government has descended to legislative gridlock and special interest trading. Most public policy is now made in the biennial budget process, utterly obscure to most of the public and almost entirely controlled by the Governor.