News of the Day

Municipalities are struggling to keep pace with rapidly rising home prices, creating the largest gap between local property tax assessments and market values in recent years. That’s according to a new report by the Wisconsin Policy Forum. The report says the gap between assessed and market values has spawned concerns about the fairness of Wisconsin’s property tax system.

Over 800 Wisconsin municipalities have assessed values for the properties in their borders that are lower than 80 percent of their market value, according to the report. That’s the largest gap since at least 2011.

Ari Brown, a researcher for Wisconsin Policy Forum and the report’s author, said the main cause for that gap is “the hottest housing market in recent memory” over the last few years.

“When property values are rising so quickly, it is hard for local assessors to keep up with that,” he said. “There’s just a lack of supply and housing right now to meet demand.”

On top of trying to catch up to a booming housing market, revaluations can be a major expense for local governments, on top of other necessary costs like infrastructure investment, Brown said. A revaluation is a program undertaken by a municipality to appraise all property within its boundary to its full and fair value.

For example, a full revaluation for the city of Rhinelander — which has a population of roughly 7,800 — would cost nearly $160,000, according to the report.

Staffing constraints also make it difficult for local governments to catch up on assessments, said Jerry Deschane, executive director of the League of Wisconsin Municipalities.

“Municipalities are trying to do their job — they’re trying to catch up,” he said. “But there’s a limited number of human beings out there, called state-certified assessors, and there are not enough of them to go around.”

Republican legislators announced a bill Monday that would devote more than $614 million in public funding to repair and renovate the Milwaukee Brewers’ stadium — far more than taxpayers spent to build it more than two decades ago.

Under the proposal, the state would give the team $60.8 million next fiscal year and up to $20 million each year after that through 2045-46. The city of Milwaukee would contribute a total of $202 million and Milwaukee County would kick in $135 million by 2050.

The team would contribute about $100 million and extend its lease at American Family Field through 2050, keeping Major League Baseball in its smallest market for another 27 years.

“It’s a win for Wisconsin,” Assembly Speaker Robin Vos said at a news conference at the stadium, American Family Field.

Seeking to justify the public spending, Vos said losing the Brewers to another city would cost the state and local economies tens of millions of dollars in tax revenue each year, which could lead to diminished state aid for communities around Wisconsin. Baseball operations at American Family Field generate enough tax revenue that lawmakers can afford to give the team money without imposing any new taxes, Vos said.

Rick Schlesinger, the team’s president of business operations, called the proposal a “good first step” during a separate news conference later Monday. He said he expects the plan will be amended, but that he’d be happy with it if it were passed today.

The proposal would have to pass the Republican-controlled state Assembly and state Senate and get Democratic Gov. Tony Evers’ signature before it could become law. Evers’ office issued a statement Monday saying he looked forward to reviewing the proposal.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) has raised its U.S. diesel price forecast for 2023 and 2024 in its latest short term energy outlook (STEO) report, which was released last week. The EIA now sees U.S. on-highway diesel fuel prices averaging $4.31 per gallon this year and $4.07 per gallon next year.

“We raised our diesel price forecast because of higher than expected August diesel crack spreads (the price of a gallon of diesel minus the price of a gallon of crude oil) and our expectation for lower distillate inventories in the fall,” the EIA noted in its September STEO.

“Announced maintenance at the Irving Oil refinery in St. John, New Brunswick, and at the Monroe Energy refinery in Trainer, Pennsylvania, will reduce distillate fuel oil supplies to the East Coast,” the EIA added. “Total distillate inventories in the United States have been well below average since last year, and we currently estimate U.S. distillate inventories will decline by about 11 million barrels in October, more than the average October draw from 2018–22 of nearly 8 million barrels, largely because of the maintenance,” the EIA continued.

The EIA’s latest gasoline and diesel fuel update at the time of writing, which was released on September 11, shows a rising price trend in U.S. on-highway diesel fuel prices.

As of September 18, the average diesel price in the U.S. is $4.575 per gallon, according to the AAA Gas Prices website. Yesterday’s average was $4.571 per gallon, the week ago average was $4.475 per gallon, the month ago average was $4.347 per gallon, and the year ago average was $4.960 per gallon, the site highlighted.

The Labor Department said Thursday that its producer price index — which measures inflation before it hits consumers — increased 1.6% last month from a year earlier. That is up from a small 0.8% yearly increase in July and just 0.1% in June. Sharply higher gas prices drove much of the increase.

Excluding the volatile energy and food categories, core inflation rose 2.2% in August from a year earlier, down from a 2.4% yearly increase in July.

Retail sales rose 0.6% in August, compared with a revised 0.5% increase in July, according to a report issued by the Commerce Department on Thursday.

Excluding gas, retail sales were just up 0.2% for August, according to the report. Sales at gas stations rose a robust 5.2%, while furniture and home furnishings stores saw a 1% drop in sales. Clothing and accessories stores had a 0.9% gain, likely helped by back-to-school spending. Restaurants saw a 0.3% increase. Grocery stores had a 0.4% sales increase. Online sales were unchanged in August.

The uptick in retail sales reflects the economy’s resiliency despite a still tough economic environment. Yet spending has been volatile this year after surging nearly 3% in January. Sales tumbled in February and March before recovering in the spring and summer.

Inflation accelerated for a second straight month in August, reversing previous declines as consumers continued to grapple with the rising cost of everyday goods. Prices climbed 3.7% from the same time last year, faster than the 3.2% reading in July

The Labor Department said Wednesday that the consumer price index, a broad measure of the price for everyday goods including gasoline, groceries and rents, rose 0.6% in August from the previous month, in line with estimates. It marked the steepest monthly increase this year, underscoring the challenge in taming high inflation.

Other parts of the report also pointed to a slower retreat for inflation. Core prices, which exclude the more volatile measurements of food and energy, climbed 0.3% and 4.3% annually. Core prices remain more than two times higher than the typical pre-pandemic level.

The spike in headline inflation largely stemmed from a surge in gas prices, which accounted for more than half of the increase last month, the Labor Department said in the report. In total, energy prices climbed 5.6% in August from the previous month, including a 10.6% jump in gas prices.

Other price gains also proved persistent and stubbornly high in August. Shelter costs, which account for about 40% of the core inflation increase, rose 0.3% for the month and are up 7.3% over the past year. Grocery costs rose 0.2% last month and are up 3% compared with the same time last year.

On its first day of oral arguments, the Wisconsin Supreme Court justices questioned whether a charitable arm of the Catholic Diocese of Superior should be exempt from paying into Wisconsin’s unemployment insurance system.

Catholic Charities Bureau, Inc. argues its social welfare programs throughout Wisconsin are operated primarily for religious purposes and should be exempted from state unemployment insurance payments. In 2015, a Douglas County Circuit court judge exempted Challenge Center, Inc., a Catholic Charities subsidiary helping people with developmental disabilities, from having to pay into the state plan.

The Catholic Charities Bureau, or CCB, argues its other subsidiaries should also receive an exemption allowing them to pay into a church-run unemployment program. A circuit court agreed in 2020.  Two years later, a state appeals court overturned the ruling and sided with the Wisconsin Labor and Industry Review Commission, which argues while the diocese operates the CCB, the activities it performs — including offering low-income housing, assistance for the elderly and disability services — aren’t expressly religious in nature.

Liberal Justice Rebecca Dallet questioned where to draw the line for exempting charities run by religious organizations when “all you have to do is say a religious purpose, which is pretty broad stuff.”  “I mean, these are some pretty broad principles which are the basis of, I would venture to say, most religions, maybe all religions,” Dallet said. “So, where is that line?”

Attorney Eric Rassbach, of the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, which is representing the Catholic Charities Bureau, told the court the sincerity of the church’s mission to help the underserved is one limiting principle. Rassbach said courts “decide sincerity questions all the time” with regard to religious claims. He also said a nonprofit having an affinity for a religion isn’t enough.

“It actually has to be something that is operated by or controlled by a church,” Rassbach said. “And in this case, the diocese is the church. And so therefore, I think those are some pretty important limiting principles.”

Attorney Jeffrey Shampo, representing the Wisconsin Labor and Industry Review Commission, told the court that while the Catholic Charities Bureau is run by the diocese, federal tax forms and websites from its various nonprofits don’t mention religious activity. He said state statute requires nonprofits to be primarily operated for religious purposes in order to qualify for an unemployment insurance exemption.

“We have to look at the activities that they do, because otherwise they can assert that anything they do through these organizations would have a religious purpose because they’re all nonprofits,” Shampo said.

Conservative Justice Rebecca Grassl Bradley disagreed.

“Your test would violate Catholic doctrine because Catholic doctrine says the provision of charity must be to all people, not discriminating against people based on faith,” Bradley said. “Charity should be provided to people who have no faith without proselytizing. So again, doesn’t your test, as you’ve advanced it, discriminate against religions that don’t look like what the Court of Appeals of Wisconsin apparently regards as religion?”

After a summer of robust consumer spending, America’s bars, hotels and restaurants say the era of post-pandemic splurging by U.S. consumers has likely drawn to a close.

The prediction came as part of the regular “Beige Book” economic snapshot from the Federal Reserve released Wednesday. Several of the Fed’s 12 regional districts reported peaking or even slowing tourism activity — a sign that U.S. consumer spending, which accounts for about two-thirds of U.S. economic output, could be shifting in the coming months.

“Consumer spending on tourism was stronger than expected, surging during what most contacts considered the last stage of pent-up demand for leisure travel from the pandemic era,” the report said.

But that strength in leisure spending began to level off toward the end of August, the latest Beige Book shows. That’s partly because students went back to school and summer vacations wrapped up. Still, leisure spending varied by region, with some reporting a noticeable slowing and others saying it is holding steady.

Time is running short for Ford, General Motors and Stellantis to reach respective agreements with the United Auto Workers (UAW) for new contracts, and UAW President Shawn Fain reiterated Wednesday that his union is ready to strike against any of Detroit’s Big Three automakers that have not made a deal before next week’s deadline.

When asked during an interview with the Associated Press whether the labor union would strike against any of the companies that do not have tentative agreements in place when the current contracts expire at 11:59 p.m. on Sept. 14, Fain said, “That’s the plan.”

The labor union is seeking a 46% pay raise over the four-year contract along with an array of additional benefits, including a reduction of the workweek to 32 hours for 40 hours worth of pay for its 146,000 members at Ford, GM and Dodge parent Stellantis, whose latest offer the UAW rejected last month.

UAW members at each of the Big Three voted in favor of strike authorization last month by large margins, according to the union, passing with 96% among GM workers, 98% at Ford and 95% for Stellantis.

Although Fain doubled down Wednesday on saying the UAW could strike against all three automakers, he told the AP that the union does not want a strike and would prefer to reach new contract agreements before the deadline.

Republican state lawmakers have been circulating a package of six bills designed to address child care affordability.

One proposal would allow families to create pre-tax savings accounts for up to $10,000 annually in child care expenses. Another lays out details for an interest-free revolving loan fund, which would allow child care facilities to borrow money for renovations. Lawmakers included $15 million for that fund in the state’s biennial budget, and backers say the financing option could help providers expand capacity.

Four other bills would alter licensing requirements in the following ways:

• Creating a new type of license for facilities to be known as “large family child care centers.” Family day care centers typically operate out of a provider’s home, and the change would expand capacity by creating a category for such centers that care for between four and 12 children. The large family centers would be prohibited from caring for more than eight children at a time who are 2 years old or younger — an increase compared to current rules, which allow family centers to care for no more than four children at once who are under 2 years old.
• Lowering the minimum age from 17 to 16 years old to become an assistant child care teacher or school-age group leader and lowering the minimum age from 18 to 16 years for providing sole supervision to a group of children. Sponsors say the change would alleviate Wisconsin’s shortage of qualified child care workers.
• Increasing the maximum number of children allowed per worker, as well as the maximum number of children per age in group centers. Group centers could change their ratios of workers to children to match the average teacher-pupil ratio in the local school district.
• Allowing a category of providers known as “certified child care operators” to care for as many as six children under the age of 7, regardless of whether the children are related to the provider. Under current law, those providers can care for up to six children, but no more than three who are not related to them.

State Representative Joy Goeben, R-Hobart, is listed as author of at least five of the recently-unveiled proposals. Goeben said she used to own a family child care center, and that she has been speaking to current providers about the changing landscape in the approximately 25 years since then.

“I know that when I ran that center, there was profit.” she said. “We need to really find the underlying issues as to why there’s a struggle with this profitability. So I’m trying to look at … ‘What are barriers that are getting in the way of that?’ Because this is why we can’t afford child care.”

“While it’s great to hear some legislative Republicans are finally acknowledging the child care crisis facing our state, legislation that could reduce the quality of care for our kids, fails to keep child care center doors open tomorrow, and provides no immediate help to make child care more affordable for working families simply will not cut it,” a spokesperson for the governor said in a statement.

Evers has tried unsuccessfully to get lawmakers to allocate more than $360 million in state funding to continue a pandemic-era subsidy program called Child Care Counts. Thousands of Wisconsin child care providers used money from Child Care Counts to help cover costs including wages, rent and utilities, but the initiative is petering out with federal funding set to end in early 2024.