The Badger State has a revered work ethic. After all, it is named for the lead miners of the 1830s who, like their furry namesakes, burrowed into the hillsides to live and work during the harsh Midwestern winters. This virtue explains why Wisconsin led the nation in promoting work as a way out of poverty during the welfare reforms of the 1990s and helps explain why, to this day, Wisconsin has unusually high workforce participation rates and low unemployment and poverty rates.
Wisconsinites value hard work, and like most Americans they see employment as a path to a prosperous life. Regrettably, though, when it comes to policies toward low-income families, the actions of Governor Tony Evers over the past year undermine this fundamental value. State leaders must refocus the state’s anti-poverty policies on employment to reinforce work as the surest path out of poverty.
States rightly have a say in how federal anti-poverty programs are administered to their residents. Since work offers economic security for most Americans, states are wise to enact anti-poverty policies that focus on employment. But in a recent report for the Badger Institute, I found that Wisconsin is falling short. When it comes to three of the largest cash-assistance (or cash-like) anti-poverty federal programs — the earned income tax credit, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, and the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program, known as Wisconsin Works — Wisconsin’s governor has returned to failed policies of the past.
After years of a strong, pro-work anti-poverty approach, Evers took two major steps in 2019 to weaken aspects of Wisconsin’s strategy. He vetoed training money to avoid implementing a law that required parents of school-age children who receive SNAP to work or participate in job training, essentially depriving them of employment training and education services. In addition, the state asked for, and received in six counties and 10 tribal areas, a waiver to a federal law that requires able-bodied individuals without children who receive SNAP to either work or participate in job training to receive benefits.
