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,. The Wisconsin Values Budget for Better Choices for Wisconsin. COWS, 2011.
The Wisconsin Values Budget is a balanced approach to our fiscal challenges that demonstrates Governor Scott Walker’s choices are not necessary choices. Through sacrifice that is fairly shared, and by building on Wisconsin’s history of progressive innovation, we can maintain and further improve public structures that work for everyone. The Wisconsin Values Budget, unlike the governor’s “cuts only” approach, begins again to truly share the burden of creating a dynamic and prosperous economy that promotes opportunity, security, and freedom for all Wisconsinites.
Lead Sponsors: Wisconsin Council on Children and Families, Citizen Action of Wisconsin, Institute for Wisconsin’s Future, COWS.
Documents include long version (4 page) or short version (1 page) describing this alternative budget plan.
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COWS offers data on public-sector workers — their pay relative to the private-sector workforce, the size of Wisconsin’s public workforce over time, and analysis of what the wage reductions in the 2011-13 budget will cost different public workers — and data on the most most important cause of the state’s budget deficit: declining revenue due to the Great Recession.
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A look at why the Wisconsin Retirement System is one of the healthiest in the country.
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DocumentRogers, J., and L. Dresser. “ALEC Exposed: Business Domination Inc.”. The Nation, 2011, pp. 17-20.
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Dresser, L., E. Navot, and J. Rogers. The State of Working Wisconsin 2010. COWS, 2010.
The State of Working Wisconsin is a biennial report, produced by COWS, that offers a comprehensive review of the status of jobs and workers in Wisconsin. On alternate years, we produce a short update report instead of the full report. The State of Working Wisconsin is filled with data and analysis on jobs, wages, poverty, and income, as well as an account of economic inequality in the state.
The State of Working Wisconsin 2010 documents the impact of the Great Recession on Wisconsin workers.
Documents include Full Report and Executive Summary
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, M. G. A. Platform for Creating and Retaining Midwestern Jobs in the New Energy Economy. The Council of State Governments, Midwestern Office, 2009.
MGA (Midwestern Governors Association), report outlines strategies for job creation through state policy changes in the Midwest.
COWS’ Sarah White served on the Advisory Board that developed and wrote the platform.
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Rhodes-Conway, S. Wisconsin Apollo State Policy Platform 2008-2009. COWS, 2009.
The Wisconsin Apollo State Policy Platform for 2009 supports the promotion of clean energy manufacturing, to enact tougher appliance efficiency standards, to set higher goals for Wisconsin’s renewable portfolio standard, to make a major state effort in building efficiency, to cap, auction and invest, to create affordable, accessible, and comprehensive public transit systems, and to enact a low carbon fuel standard.
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,. The State of Working Wisconsin - Update 2009. COWS, 2009.
The State of Working Wisconsin – Update 2009 gives a snapshot of the effects of the recession on Wisconsin workers and their families, and reports on other key trends.
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,. Raising Wisconsin’s Minimum Wage. COWS, 2009.
This report makes the case for a higher minimum wage in Wisconsin. Though the July 23, 2009, increase of the federal and state minimum wage to $7.25 will put money in the pockets of 196,000 Wisconsin working adults. A proposal by state leaders to increase the state minimum to $7.60 and index it annually to inflation would bring higher wages to some 316,000 workers and put $108 million dollars into the economy.
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