Community Economic Development
Division of Extension
The UW-Madison EDA University Center conducted a statewide survey of Wisconsin residents on broadband access and affordability, with the goal of estimating the willingness to pay for broadband. As the state makes significant investments in broadband infrastructure, attention is shifting to the willingness, or ability, of people, particularly lower income people, to pay for broadband subscriptions.
One long-held strategy to foster economic growth and development is to recapture tax dollars that flow to higher units of government. Paying taxes to higher units of government, such as the state and/or federal government, is a leakage from the local economy. In a sense, these leakages are akin to a local business buying inputs from vendors outside of the community or local residents shopping outside of the community. While many communities strike to close these leakages by encouraging firms and shoppers to buy locally, such an approach does not apply to state and federal taxes. Rather, communities often strive to have those dollars returned to the community through local state and federal government spending.
Building on the data sources described in Part 1, this session explores how to use data once you have extracted it. Real-world examples will be shared to demonstrate how data can be used in applications related to commuting patterns, retail surplus and leakage, workforce development, housing analysis, and industry expansion and retention.
This session provides an overview of data sources to help guide community economic development efforts at the local and regional levels. Topics covered include labor force characteristics, demographics, measures of industrial concentration, sales tax collections, and housing data options.
Nonemployer establishments, sole proprietorships and partnerships without any paid employees, are an important part of the country’s economy. As of 2018, they made up a large and quickly growing share of businesses in the United States at 77% of the total while the other 23% of establishments were employer businesses [1]. Given that nonemployer establishments are businesses without employees, they are predominantly independent contractors who work for themselves or small businesses operated only by the owner(s) or unpaid members of their family.
When one thinks about the term “business climate”, factors such as taxes, regulations, and unionization come to mind. These items tend to be viewed as potential costs that businesses face when making investment decisions. Anything that is viewed as increasing the costs of business operations is considered bad for the business climate of a community or region. To foster economic growth and development the business climate of the community or region must be enhanced. The logic follows that strategies or policies that reduce tax burdens, limit or reduce regulations, or weaken the strength of labor unions (e.g. Right-to-Work laws) will enhance business climate and foster economic growth and development.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY January 2021 — In this study we explore issues related to broadband coverage and importance of coverage to community well-being. Several key conclusions include: Fact Sheets Broadband Access and Affordability How Available is Broadband in Wisconsin? Disconnected: Households Without Any Internet Broadband Connectivity and Health Outcomes Increasing Broadband Adoption Broadband and […]
Childcare was a challenge for parents before the pandemic and has only become more difficult in recent months. During the pandemic, as much as 60% of childcare providers closed and stopped providing childcare (Bipartisan Policy Center, 2020). While many of those closures were temporary, a recent state-level study estimates that, in absence of additional aid, 30% of the childcare supply in Wisconsin could be permanently lost if providers are closed for more than two weeks without revenue due to COVID-19.
The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly impacted Wisconsin’s economy. When the country reported the first case on January 20th, 2020, there was uncertainty as to how fast and far the virus would spread. On March 11th, the World Health Organization declared a pandemic and on March 16th all Wisconsin public schools were ordered to close while Governor Tony Evers instituted a Safer-at-Home order and closure of all non-essential businesses.
Recent analysis demonstrates that communities of color are disproportionately suffering the health impacts of COVID-19. In Milwaukee County, 29 percent of the population is Black or African American yet Black or African Americans represent 43 percent of COVID-19-related deaths1. Much like the poor health outcomes from COVID-19 are disproportionately suffered by people of color, the economic costs are likely also inequitably distributed across racial and ethnic groups.
The growth in student debt in the United States has become a cause for concern. At the beginning of 2006, student debt, or loans taken out to pursue higher educational opportunities, was approximately $481 billion. By the beginning of 2019, that amount has grown to nearly $1.6 trillion (Figure 1a). While student loan debt remains smaller than consumer credit debt ($4.1 trillion) or mortgage debt ($15.5 trillion), the rate of growth of student debt is alarming.
July 2019 — Patterns of uneven economic growth and development across the U.S. have been well established in the popular press and academic literature. Some states, such as Mississippi, Alabama and New Mexico, continue to experience higher rates of poverty, lower rates of worker productivity, and modest income growth. Other states, such as Arizona, Colorado […]
