The state finished 2021-22 with a record high positive GAAP balance of $4.6 billion. The report found under Generally Accepted Accounting Principles, the state’s balance increased more than 300 percent from the end of the 2020-21 fiscal year.

GAAP principles are designed to reflect accounting practices in business and are different from what the state uses as the foundation for its budget process. The Department of Administration in November released a look at the 2023-25 budget, for example, that listed a gross balance at the end of 2021-22 of $4.3 billion.

The state had a GAAP deficit in the general fund of $773.5 million at the end of the 2018-19 fiscal year shortly after Evers took office. That was an improvement over the $1.3 billion GAAP deficit the year before.

“Wisconsin is in the best fiscal position we’ve ever seen, and this year’s remarkable increase is another positive indicator that we are headed in the right direction — toward a stronger, more secure economic future that ensures we can keep working to build a Wisconsin that works for everyone,” Evers said.

Joint Finance Co-chair Howard Marklein, R-Spring Green, noted the GAAP deficit was $3 billion when he was first elected to the Legislature a dozen years ago.

“We have made remarkable, consistent progress since Republicans have had control of the state’s checkbook,” he said.

The Comprehensive Financial Report also found:

*the state’s transportation fund balance increased $275 million to $1.3 billion at the end of 2021-22.

*long-term debt decreased by more than $365 million. That was driven largely by a drop of $183.3 million in outstanding annual appropriation bonds and repayments of general obligation debt exceeding new issuances by $102.1 million.

Senate leaders unveiled a $1.7 trillion year-long federal government funding bill early Tuesday morning.

The legislation includes $772.5 billion for non-defense discretionary programs and $858 billion in defense funding, according to a bill summary from Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy, chair of the Senate Committee on Appropriations.

The sweeping package includes roughly $45 billion in emergency assistance to Ukraine and NATO allies, boosts in spending for disaster aid, college access, child care, mental health and food assistance, more support for the military and veterans and additional funds for the US Capitol Police, according to Leahy’s summary and one from Sen. Richard Shelby of Alabama, the top Republican on the Senate Appropriations Committee. It also includes several major Medicaid provisions, including one that could disenroll up to 19 million people from the nation’s health insurance program for low-income Americans.

However, the bill, which runs more than 4,000 pages, left out several measures that some lawmakers had fought to include. An expansion of the child tax credit, as well as multiple other corporate and individual tax breaks, did not make it into the final bill. Neither did legislation to allow cannabis companies to bank their cash reserves – known as the Safe Banking Act Act – or a bill to help Afghan evacuees in the US gain lawful permanent residency. Also, there was no final resolution on where the new FBI headquarters will be located.

The spending bill is the product of lengthy negotiations between top congressional Democrats and Republicans. Lawmakers reached a “bipartisan, bicameral framework” last week following a dispute between the two parties over how much money should be spent on non-defense domestic priorities. They worked through the weekend to craft the legislation.

The Senate is expected to vote first to approve the deal this week and then send it to the House for approval before government funding runs out on December 23. The bill would keep the government operating through September of 2023, the end of the fiscal year.

Millions of Wisconsin residents will be affected by two separate mergers of nonprofit hospital systems that were finalized earlier this month.

Gundersen Health System and Bellin Health completed a merger on Dec. 1. The next day, Advocate Aurora Health and Atrium Health did the same. Together, the mergers will impact about 8.5 million patients across several states.

Bellin and Gundersen will keep their respective names for the time being, as well as separate headquarters in Green Bay and La Crosse, while Advocate Aurora and Atrium will become “Advocate Health.” Marshfield Clinic Health System and Essentia health also announced merger talks earlier this year.

Hospital officials say the deals are aimed at improving patient care, and stem from organizations sharing similar missions and visions. But the mergers also have the potential to give hospitals more leverage to negotiate for higher prices with insurance companies.

However, University of Wisconsin-Madison Economist Alan Sorensen said mergers may give hospitals more leverage in negotiations with insurance companies.

He said insurance companies want to pay as low a price as they can negotiate, while health care providers want to get paid as much as they can negotiate.

“Those negotiations are enormously important for the bottom lines of these companies,” Sorensen said. “A lot of times what’s driving the mergers is that (hospital systems) feel like if they’re bigger, they’ll do better in those negotiations, they’ll have more bargaining power, they’ll be more indispensable to the insurance company.”

If health systems can negotiate for higher rates, he said, it could raise prices for patients.

“If the insurance companies have to pay higher prices to the hospitals, some of the increase is going to get passed through to the consumer in the form of higher insurance premiums,” Sorensen said.

The Public Service Commission of Wisconsin (PSC or Commission) is encouraging individuals to identify inaccuracies and challenge the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) draft of the national broadband map by January 13, 2023. Since unveiling the pre-production draft of the new broadband in November, the FCC has called on consumers, state, local and Tribal government entities, and other stakeholders can help verify the accuracy of the data.

The new map is the most granular and up-to-date federal map of where broadband is and is not available across the country. The FCC’s new broadband maps will be used to determine the allocation of Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) funds that Wisconsin will receive to build broadband infrastructure.

The new map is available at https://broadbandmap.gov/. Residents can type their address and check the map. If the information is inaccurate, residents can submit a challenge by filling out the Availability Challenge Form. Instructions are available at How to Submit an Availability Challenge on the FCC website.

On December 12, Governor Tony Evers and PSC Chairperson Valcq announced the state will receive more than $5 million to begin planning for the deployment and adoption of affordable, equitable, and reliable high-speed internet in Wisconsin through the BEAD and Digital Equity Act, under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. Wisconsin could expect an allocation of $700 million to $1.1 billion for broadband expansion under BEAD, depending on the FCC’s mapping data.

The PSC’s Wisconsin Broadband Office (WBO) submitted challenges to over 7,000 locations in the state, meaning the WBO identified homes and business that are missing from the map completely. But now, public participation in the availability challenge is essential. Wisconsinites’ input will improve the accuracy of the map and result in federal funding for broadband being targeted to the areas of Wisconsin that need it most.

The FCC recently published a National Broadband Map Outreach Toolkit with materials that are available for public use. The PSC’s Wisconsin Broadband Office is available to answer questions and share resources to assist individual in challenging the FCC map PSCStatebroadbandoffice@wisconsin.gov.

Consumers pulled back on spending in November, the Commerce Department reported Thursday. Retail sales for the month declined 0.6%.

The pullback was widespread across categories. Furniture and home furnishings stores reported a decrease of 2.6%, building materials and garden centers were off 2.5%, and motor vehicle and parts dealers dropped 2.3%.

Even with declining gas prices, service stations sales were down just 0.1%.

Online sales also decreased, falling 0.9%, while bars and restaurants increased 0.9%, and food and beverage stores rose 0.8%.

The Federal Reserve reinforced its inflation fight Wednesday by raising its key interest rate for the seventh time this year and signaling more hikes to come. But it announced a smaller hike than it had in its past four meetings at a time when inflation is showing signs of easing.

The Fed made clear, in a statement and a news conference by Chair Jerome Powell, that it thinks sharply higher rates are still needed to fully tame the worst inflation bout to strike the economy in four decades.

The central bank boosted its benchmark rate a half-point to a range of 4.25% to 4.5%, its highest level in 15 years. Though lower than its previous three-quarter-point hikes, the latest move will further increase the costs of many consumer and business loans and the risk of a recession.

More surprisingly, the policymakers forecast that their key short-term rate will reach a range of 5% to 5.25% by the end of 2023. That suggests that the Fed is poised to raise its rate by an additional three-quarters of a point and leave it there through next year. Some economists had expected that the Fed would project only an additional half-point increase.

The consumer price index, which measures a wide basket of goods and services, rose just 0.1% from the previous month, and increased 7.1% from a year ago, the Labor Department reported Tuesday.  Excluding volatile food and energy prices, so-called core CPI rose 0.2% on the month and 6% on an annual basis.

Falling energy prices helped keep inflation at bay. The energy index declined 1.6% for the month, due in part to a 2% decrease in gasoline. Food prices, however, rose 0.5% and were up 10.6% from a year ago. Even with its monthly decline, the energy index was higher by 13.1% from November 2021. Shelter costs, which make up about one-third of CPI weighting, continued to escalate, rising 0.6% on the month and now up 7.1% on an annual basis.

Used vehicle prices, which had been a major contributor to the initial inflation burst, fell 2.9% for the month and are now down 3.3% from a year ago. As recently as February, the used cars and trucks index was up more than 40% on an annual basis, the result of higher demand as a microchip shortage caused a backlog in new car production.

Medical care services costs also declined 0.7% on a monthly basis and were up 4.4% annually.

Property owners will pay $78.7 million more in school taxes this year, even though the state budget signed last summer aimed to drive down the annual bills.

The Wisconsin Policy Forum cited the hundreds of school referendum that have passed since the 2021-23 budget was signed as one reason for the 1.5 percent increase in property taxes statewide to $5.48 billion

The group noted the increase is relatively modest when considering several factors, including the rate of inflation.

Still, the Legislative Fiscal Bureau in a June 2021 memo projected that school levies would fall by 2.6 percent on the bills sent out a year ago and 1.9 percent this year. Instead, they went up 0.3 percent last year and 1.5 percent this year.

In all, 219 districts will see their levies go up on this December’s bills, 186 will see decreases and 16 will see them remain the same.

It is the 11th straight year that statewide school property taxes will rise.

According to the report, voters have approved 456 referendum questions since 2018. That includes 246 for operating budgets and 210 for capital projects.

Wisconsin’s 130 state-chartered banks continue to demonstrate solid financial performance as of September 30, 2022, according to data released today by the Wisconsin Department of Financial Institutions (DFI).

Total assets of Wisconsin’s state-chartered banks stand at more than $67.1 billion through September 30, 2022, down from $67.8 billion reported September 30, 2021. Despite rising interest rates, the net interest margin is holding steady, decreasing slightly from 3.35% as of September 30, 2021, to 3.33% as of September 30, 2022. Net loans have increased 5.1% from September 30, 2021, up $2.2 billion.

In the twelve months ending on September 30, 2022:

• The capital ratio remained satisfactory at 9.38% compared to 10.97% in September 2021;
• The past due ratio improved to 0.56% from 0.76% in September 2021;
• Net operating income was over $594.3 million, but down from $679.4 million in September 2021 due, in part, to the end of the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) fee income and secondary market income;
• The return on average assets ratio showed a decline to 1.19% from 1.39% in September 2021; and
• Bank liquidity remained adequate but was impacted by the increase in the loans to assets ratio at 68.89% compared to 64.82% in September 2021.

“As interest rates continue to rise and economic uncertainty persists, Wisconsin’s state-chartered banks are displaying sound decisions and financial performance through the third-quarter of 2022,” said DFI Secretary-designee Cheryll Olson-Collins. “Overall, Wisconsin’s state-chartered banks are financially stable and a source of strength for the economy.”

Last week, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) approved Wisconsin’s application for an extension of the Section 1332 State Innovation Waiver (1332 waiver) which has allowed the successful operation of the Wisconsin Healthcare Stability Plan (WIHSP). With this extension, WIHSP will be able to operate under the 1332 waiver for an additional five years through Plan Year 2028.

WIHSP is a reinsurance program that covers a portion of high-cost enrollee claims within certain parameters. The program is funded with a sum sufficient state appropriation and federal pass-through funds totaling $230 million per year.

An actuarial analysis of WIHSP found that the average premium paid by Wisconsin enrollees on the individual health insurance market was reduced by approximately 13.2% due to the program. The analysis also found that the program led to an increase in enrollment. During the 2022 Open Enrollment Period, 212,209 Wisconsinites signed up for health insurance on HealthCare.gov- Wisconsin’s highest enrollment since the 2018 Open Enrollment Period.

“Expanding access to high-quality, affordable health insurance coverage has been a priority for Governor Evers and it is critical for the overall well-being of our state. WIHSP is one of our agency’s most important tools in that effort,” said Commissioner Houdek. “This five-year extension will allow us to build on past success to ensure that more Wisconsinites can get the health coverage they need.”