Former Gov. Scott Walker called it “Reform Dividend.” Tax collections over the next three years are projected to come in $753 million higher than previously anticipated, compliments of eight years of conservative reforms. Tax and regulation relief spurred record low unemployment, business expansion, personal income growth - and all that means more money in the state treasury.

Milwaukee liberals have "lead" their constituents to believe that legislative Republicans are to blame for the city’s lead pipes problem. The fix to Milwaukee’s drinking water crisis, they insist, is more state taxpayer money. But liberals and socialists have controlled the city of Milwaukee for the better part of a century. And while Milwaukee’s citizens wait for clean drinking water, its mayor is fixated on an expensive streetcar.

A few years ago, a state audit found alarming incidents of fraud in Wisconsin’s FoodShare program. Now, it looks like Gov. Tony Evers’ administration wants to open the door to a new wave of public assistance fraud by quietly changing the Residency Verification section of the state’s food stamp program. Under the new language, critics say bureaucrats will be looking for reasons to keep nonresidents in the FoodShare program rather than deny or terminate benefits.

How far will the left go to confront and harass conservatives? To the men’s room, apparently. At last week’s meeting of the Legislature’s budget committee, an irate left-winger followed Sen. Tom Tiffany into the head and berated the Minocqua Republican while he was attending to some personal business. The left continues to take public policy opposition obnoxiously where no men and women have gone before.

As the owner of a small business, Rep. Shannon Zimmerman knows the imperative of fiscal conservatism.

Not only for his own language translation company, but also for state government. Zimmerman's business and his Assembly district are on the Minnesota border, a booming region where Wisconsin's competition with neighboring states plays out every day.

Listen to this week's MacIver Newsmakers podcast, where Zimmerman - a member of the state's powerful Joint Finance Committee - talks about budget priorities, a competitive business climate, and the Bee Gees.

For all of his lofty talk about valuing public service, Gov. Tony Evers had no problem showing 15 public servants the door — in the name of politics. In a 4-3 ruling last week, the state Supreme Court ordered the reinstatement of 15 public servants confirmed during December’s controversial extraordinary legislative session. For now, 15 public servants are back to work, thanks to a court that pushed aside political pettiness in favor of due process.

A Milwaukee-area lawmaker says he’s got a fix for what ails Wisconsin’s transportation budget. Rep. Joe Sanfelippo proposes shifting half of the sales tax revenue collected on motor vehicle-related sales from the general fund to the transportation fund. A fiscal analysis show the shift could eventually raise a half a billion annually, without a gas tax increase.

18 cents a month. That’s how little some low-income individuals are paying for insurance premiums on the health insurance exchanges. You won’t hear that from the Medicaid expansionists, who will tell you Wisconsin needs to take a boatload of federal money to ensure affordable health insurance. Affordable coverage is already available thanks to taxpayers, and that's an inconvenient truth for Medicaid expansionists.

State Rep. Bob Kulp (R-Stratford), chaired the 2018 Legislative Council Study Committee on the Identification and Management of Dyslexia that examined dyslexia and its effects. The committee, which has taken some emotional and, at times contentious, testimony on the subject, came up with some legislative proposals aimed at better reaching students with such reading disorders. Rep. Kulp is our guest on this edition of MacIvers NewsMakers.

Why have a law if you don’t enforce it? Such is the case with Wisconsin’s right-to-work law. As MacIver News Service first reported, some union shops have posted ads requiring applicants to be in a union to get the job. That’s illegal under Wisconsin law, which states no employer may require union membership as a condition of obtaining or continuing employment. While the state agency in charge of enforcing right-to-work punts to the federal government, big labor gets to discriminate against non-union applicants - with impunity.