Mark Lisheron

Austin

Managing Editor at badgerinstitute.org

Writer and editor

Articles

At center of America’s essential debate, Johnson says resist spending frenzy

2 weeks ago | badgerinstitute.org | Mark Lisheron

The U.S. Senate has an opportunity to slow the growth of Medicaid, something that hasn’t been seriously tried for decades, Sen. Ron Johnson says. Miss it, and Wisconsin and nine other states are at serious risk of caving to political pressure, expanding their Medicaid programs, and setting off a frenzy of spending on the fastest growing welfare program in the country, the Wisconsin Republican says. “This is our moment, if we’re ever going to do it,” he says.
Plans, zoning and annexation form front lines for Wisconsin cities looking to build more housing

1 month ago | badgerinstitute.org | Mark Lisheron

The plan for Whitetail Woods in Altoona looks like the future in fast-growing Eau Claire County. Ground will be broken before the end of this year for a senior living center. Over the next decade, 114 duplexes, four multifamily apartment buildings and 54 single-family homes are expected to be built and occupied on 64 acres of what was farmland just a few years ago.
Taxpayers spared nearly $8.5 million in Wisconsin alone due to Trump administration order cutting aid to public broadcasting

1 month ago | badgerinstitute.org | Mark Lisheron

President Trump’s executive order to halt federal funding for public broadcasting will save taxpayers nearly $8.5 million annually in reduced federal outlays to public television and radio networks in Wisconsin alone. Republican leadership on the Wisconsin Joint Committee on Finance has said it will not support any attempt to replace those reductions in federal spending with state tax dollars.
Half of Wisconsin state employees may be working from home — though no one has a complete count - Badger Institute

2 months ago | badgerinstitute.org | Mark Lisheron

More than half of the employees in the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development and more than 40% in the Department of Administration still work remotely, five years after COVID sent them home. Numbers collected by the Badger Institute suggest that as many as half of Wisconsin’s 29,000 state employees do not work at all in a state office and that more than 24,000 work either full- or part-time from home. Those are only extrapolations. No one — in Gov.
‘Predictable’ Hobart a rarity for developers in Wisconsin

Mar 21, 2025 | badgerinstitute.org | Mark Lisheron

Unlike many places in Wisconsin, there is no housing crisis in the Village of Hobart because its leaders have done something developers say is exceedingly rare — making it as easy and predictable as possible for them to do business there. With approximately 11,000 residents, Hobart is one of the fastest growing communities in one of the fastest growing counties, Brown, in the state.
For now, a tiny house in a land of lakes and giant prices

Feb 24, 2025 | badgerinstitute.org | Mark Lisheron

First in a series on housing in the Badger State, Out of reach: Wisconsin’s housing crisis and hope for the American Dream. Jason Joling was a dream candidate for a dream job in a dream location. Just one problem: He couldn’t afford to live there. “They offered me the job and told me, ‘We expect you to be living up here within four months,’” Joling said. “I said, ‘That ain’t gonna happen.’ I had been on Zillow and there wasn’t anything we could afford. I told them I could give them 50 hours a week.
Founding Fathers would cheer Trump Administration’s concern about federal grants

Jan 31, 2025 | badgerinstitute.org | Mark Lisheron |Mike Nichols

The mainstream media has tried to turn the Trump Administration’s focus on federal grants into just another squabble between the two political tribes. It’s actually part of a much more fundamental dispute over whether Americans should adhere to the Tenth Amendment. “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people,” states that part of the Bill of Rights.
Supreme battle shaping up over voter ID

Jan 24, 2025 | badgerinstitute.org | Mark Lisheron

Wisconsin voters will on the same day this April choose a new state Supreme Court justice and also decide whether the state’s voter ID law will become part of the state Constitution — issues yoked by what almost certainly will happen in the months thereafter. State Sen. Van Wanggaard, chair of the Committee on Judiciary and Public Safety, said during a committee hearing on Jan.
“Free” Milwaukee streetcar costing over $5 million annually

Oct 18, 2024 | badgerinstitute.org | Mark Lisheron

Facing a $5 million bill to run the free streetcar known as The Hop next year, Alderman Scott Spiker wondered if a huge increase in handing out parking tickets is the funding answer. Department of Public Works officials say that is not the case. “The parking ticket increase is not at all tied into The Hop,” Tiffany Shepherd, Marketing and Communications Officer for DPW, told the Badger Institute this week. “Also, The Hop’s operating budget is $4 million.
Government overregulation stymies broadband buildout in rural Wisconsin

Oct 14, 2024 | badgerinstitute.org | Mark Lisheron

Government overregulation is imperiling the start of a $1 billion plan to expand broadband service to the hardest-to-reach places in Wisconsin. The problem is nationwide, with telecom companies balking at bidding for a piece of a $42 billion federal Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program, a tiny part of the $1.2 trillion Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act passed by Congress in November 2021.