(The Center Square) – Wisconsin ranks 21st in the new economic outlook rankings from the American Legislative Exchange Council.
The annual rankings from ALEC – an organization favoring limited government, free markets and federalism – rank states on 15 state policy categories including gross domestic product, domestic migration and non-farm payroll employment.
Wisconsin ranked 30th in the backward-looking economic performance metric.
Wisconsin earned top rankings for lack of estate/inheritance tax, $7.25 state minimum wage using the federal mark and for being a right-to-work state.
The ranking is several spots below the No. 17 ranking in 2023 after being 14th in 2022, 15th in 2021, 12th in 2020 and 17th in 2019.
Wisconsin’s lowest points rankings (zero to 50 in 15 categories) came from average workers’ compensation costs (42 for $1.67 per $100 of payroll), top marginal corporate income tax rate (36 for 7.9%), property tax burden (34 for $30.54 per $1,000 of personal income) and recently legislated tax changes (34).
Wisconsin scored 10 points for having just 474.5 public employees per 10,000 in population and 13 points apiece for its remaining tax burden of $13.54 per $1,000 of personal income and its state liability system survey.
Wisconsin ranked 32nd in state gross domestic product, 34th in absolute domestic migration and 32nd in non-farm payroll.
