MADISON — Gov. Tony Evers today reflected on his and the Evers Administration’s work over the past year to serve Wisconsinites in every corner of the state and highlighted his administration’s 2024 accomplishments as the year comes to an end, including efforts to bolster Wisconsin’s workforce during the Year of the Worker as declared by the governor in January this year.
“We’re always working to do the right thing for Wisconsin, and I’m so proud to see yet another year’s worth of success and accomplishments helping deliver on our promise to improve the lives of Wisconsinites across our state,” said Gov. Evers.
“Our work to bolster Wisconsin’s workforce to address our generational challenges and meet the demands of the 21st Century has been a critical focus of our work this year. We have also welcomed major investments from global companies like Microsoft and Eli Lilly and Company, secured our designation as a U.S. Regional Tech Hub, began implementing one of the largest state affordable housing investments in state history, continued to fix the darn roads and expand high-speed internet, saw record-high employment, enacted fair maps, and protected access to the ballot box and reproductive healthcare, and so much more,” Gov. Evers continued. “2024 was a historic year for Wisconsin in so many ways, and I want to extend my gratitude to my cabinet, office, and state workers who work in earnest every day to make sure state government works – and works well – for the people we serve. We accomplished so much together this past year, and I’m excited to continue full steam ahead working for Wisconsin in 2025.”
Among Gov. Evers’ and the Evers Administration’s 2024 accomplishments include: signing 186 bills into law, including enacting fair legislative maps, undoing over a decade of Wisconsinites living under some of the most gerrymandered legislative maps in America; achieving record-high employment and participation in the state’s Registered and Youth apprenticeship programs during the governor’s declared Year of the Worker; creating the Task Force on the Healthcare Workforce and the state’s first-ever Teacher Apprenticeship Pilot Program; launching the Agricultural Roads Improvement Program to help farmers and producers get products to market; expanding electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure statewide, as well as expanding passenger rail for the first time in 20 years; securing the state’s designation as a U.S. Regional Tech Hub; getting more people insured through the Marketplace than ever before with record-high enrollment in the Affordable Care Act (ACA); expanding access to birth control and reproductive healthcare; achieving record high tourism and outdoor recreation economic impact numbers; securing multi-billion dollar investments from key industry leaders like Microsoft, Eli Lilly and Company, Nestlé Purina PetCare Company, Kikkoman Foods Inc., and more; improving more than 8,600 miles of road and 2,000 bridges since 2019; building more than 17,000 units of affordable housing since 2019; and throughout 2024, the Evers Administration implemented several programs, grants, and funds from the governor’s 2023-25 biennial budget that included investments to build 21st-century infrastructure to support Wisconsin’s 21st-century economy and workforce.
A comprehensive but not exhaustive list of Gov. Evers’ and the Evers Administration’s 2024 accomplishments is available below.
Building a 21st-Century Workforce and Economy
- Gov. Evers highlighted a recent 2024 report by the Wisconsin Policy Forum, which states that the state’s tax burden, also known as the state’s personal income tax or the amount Wisconsinites pay as a share of their personal income, has hit an all-time low—thanks in part to tax cuts signed into law by Gov. Evers over the past several years. Through the income tax cuts the governor has signed into law to date, Wisconsin taxpayers will see $1.5 billion in tax relief annually, primarily targeted to the middle class.
- Gov. Evers signed 2023 Wisconsin Act 101, which expanded the current child and dependent care tax credit from 50 percent to 100 percent of the federal credit, helping reduce the tax burden for families struggling to afford the high cost of child care and care for adult dependents. Act 101, similar to a proposal Gov. Evers recommended in his 2023-25 biennial budget proposal, provides tax relief to over 110,000 Wisconsin taxpayers at an average benefit of over $656 per filer, totaling nearly $73 million in annual tax relief.
- Gov. Evers, during his 2024 State of the State address, declared 2024 the Year of the Worker in Wisconsin and announced new efforts by the Evers Administration to build a workforce prepared to meet the needs of a 21st-century economy, including launching the state’s first teacher apprenticeship pilot program and creating the Governor’s Task Force on the Healthcare Workforce.
- Gov. Evers signed Executive Order #220 to create the Governor’s Task Force on the Healthcare Workforce. The task force was charged with studying the workforce challenges facing the state’s healthcare system, including recruitment and retention, quality of patient care, educational and training pathways to grow a sustainable healthcare workforce, and creating an action plan with solutions. The Task Force hosted six meetings around the state and, in August, delivered a full report, providing 10 recommendations with 26 action items.
- Gov. Evers, together with the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development (DWD), announced $1 million in grants available for the Teacher Training and Recruitment Grant program to train and recruit teachers where shortages are most prevalent in Wisconsin. The grants, which cover two years of program costs, are available through DWD’s Expanded Wisconsin Fast Forward program. Wisconsin nonprofit organizations can apply for up to $500,000 to recruit, train, and license teachers to meet the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction’s guidelines for serving qualifying school districts.
- The administration launched the state’s first-ever Teacher Apprenticeship Pilot Program to strengthen the state’s educator pipeline, as well as teacher turnover and retention. In November, Gov. Evers joined DWD, the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction (DPI), and school officials to celebrate the first eight teacher apprentices signing their apprenticeship agreements.
- Over the course of the year, Gov. Evers and DWD announced eight new occupational pathways in Wisconsin’s Youth Apprenticeship program, including early childhood education, school-age education, administrative professional, human resources professional, law enforcement, fire protection, project management, and barbering/cosmetology.
- DWD celebrated the success of the Youth Apprenticeship program during the first annual National Youth Apprenticeship Week, highlighting the record 9,932 Youth Apprentices enrolled in the program with a record 6,671 employer sponsors during the 2023-2024 school year. with a record 6,671 employer sponsors during the 2023-2024 school year.
- Gov. Evers later celebrated “National Apprenticeship Week” in November by announcing that Wisconsin’s Registered Apprenticeship Program has reached a record of 17,089 enrolled apprentices and more than 3,000 participating employers—surpassing record participation in both 2022 and 2023 and marking the third consecutive year that the program has reached an all-time record in the program’s 112-year history.
- DWD launched the nation’s first respiratory therapist registered apprenticeship program in partnership with UW Health and Madison College.
- According to the Wisconsin Department of Administration (DOA), the state of Wisconsin also achieved several state workforce milestones, including supporting more than 9,800 new hires across the enterprise and providing over 185,122 training hours to state employees between January and November.
- Gov. Evers welcomed President Joe Biden to Wisconsin to join Microsoft officials in celebrating Microsoft’s investment of $3.3 billion between May 2024 and the end of 2026 to expand its national cloud and artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure capacity through the development of a state-of-the-art datacenter campus in Mount Pleasant, Wisconsin. The project is expected to bring 2,000 union construction jobs to the area by the end of this year, as well as provide long-term employment opportunities over the next several years. Microsoft also announced the establishment of a long-term partnership to advance the state’s global leadership in AI and advanced manufacturing.
- Gov. Evers signed 2023 Wisconsin Act 95, requiring the Board of Regents at the UW System to establish a guaranteed admission program for certain Wisconsin high school students to help retain the state’s own homegrown talent. According to the UW System, nearly 90 percent of in-state UW System graduates stay in Wisconsin five years after graduation.
- Gov. Evers signed four bills, including Senate Bill 668, now 2023 Wisconsin Act 267, which directs the Wisconsin Department of Financial Institutions (DFI) to implement an Achieving a Better Life Experience (ABLE) savings account program. ABLE savings plans are accounts designed to help those with disabilities save and invest for qualified disability expenses without jeopardizing the means-tested benefits they receive.
- Gov. Evers signed 2023 Wisconsin Act 92 and Act 93, respectively, providing four percent wage increases for employees in the building trades crafts collective bargaining units at UW-Madison and the UW System. While these raises for UW building trades employees are based on the collective bargaining agreements between the UW Board of Regents and the Wisconsin State Building Trades Negotiating Committee, they match the four percent increase that was negotiated, agreed upon, and approved by the Wisconsin State Legislature and Gov. Evers for the 35,000 non-represented UW employees in the 2023-25 biennial budget. Still, the wage increases signed into law by Gov. Evers were long-delayed as the Republican-controlled Joint Committee on Employment Relations (JCOER) refused to authorize the collective bargaining agreements and introduce the legislation necessary for implementation. After nearly six months of Republicans’ unconstitutional obstruction of these increases, JCOER finally approved the wage adjustment for non-represented employees in December 2023 and, at the same meeting, also approved the collective bargaining agreements.
- DWD unveiled two new mobile career labs in 2024 to expand mobile workforce services, including support for employer hiring events, job fairs, and recruitment events across the state.
- The Wisconsin Department of Safety and Professional Services (DSPS) announced its third round of Youth Firefighter Training Program grants to boost recruitment in fire departments by introducing fire service careers to students across the state.
- DSPS also celebrated the state’s first Dental Diploma Privilege graduates at the Marquette University School of Dentistry in 2024. In collaboration with Marquette University, the Dentistry Examining Board, the Wisconsin Dental Association, and DSPS, the school’s graduates who wish to start practicing in Wisconsin no longer have to pay for and take a one-day, post-graduate practical exam to earn their license.
- Throughout 2024, Wisconsin achieved consecutive months of record-high employment and continued to see historically low unemployment rates:
- Gov. Evers, together with the DWD, announced that Wisconsin achieved new record highs for employment and total nonfarm jobs during June 2024, according to preliminary estimates from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
- Gov. Evers, together with the DWD, announced that nine counties across the state showed the lowest unemployment rates on record. Counties with record-low unemployment include Ashland, Bayfield, Burnett, Door, Langlade, Oconto, Pepin, Rock, and Sawyer, with unemployment rates as low as 1.9 percent and no higher than 2.7 percent in these select counties.
- Gov. Evers, together with the DWD, announced Wisconsin achieved a new record high for employment during October 2024 and then beat that record again in November, marking the seventh consecutive monthly record high for employment.
- Gov. Evers, together with the DWD, announced that Wisconsin ranked first in the nation for inflation-adjusted hourly earnings growth during February, March, and May 2024 and second in the nation during April, according to data on private sector worker earnings released by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
- The Governor’s Task Force on Workforce and Artificial Intelligence, formed in August 2023 and chaired by DWD Secretary Pechacek, released its plan in July 2024.
- The Wisconsin Office of the Commissioner of Insurance (OCI) and DWD announced that worker’s compensation insurance rates dropped for the ninth year in a row, saving employers roughly $206 million on policies beginning in October 2024.
- DSPS worked with multiple boards to form the new Interdisciplinary Advisory Council, which is looking into rising concerns and practice questions related to new ways to deliver healthcare.
- DWD announced record-high disability employment in Wisconsin for the second consecutive year, with nearly 190,000 working-age individuals with disabilities employed in the state in 2023.
- Throughout 2024, DSPS issued over 45,600 initial professional licenses, the second most on record for a given year. The only year with a higher number of issued licenses in Wisconsin was 2023, making 2023-24 the most productive two-year stretch ever for the state’s licensing division.
- DSPS and the Wisconsin Technical College System (WTCS) announced a collaborative effort to streamline the professional licensing of students graduating from healthcare programs at WTCS institutions, guiding them into the state’s healthcare workforce as quickly as possible.
- DSPS announced its workforce-focused Accelerate Wisconsin Initiative, which encompasses multiple new DSPS efforts to streamline the path to licensure in various professions, keeping an emphasis on safety while accelerating the transition from the classroom to the workforce.
- After tireless advocacy from Gov. Evers and U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wisconsin), the two announced that certain Wisconsin businesses would be eligible for a federal disaster loan program if they suffered losses due to last year’s unusually mild winter, which lacked Wisconsin’s typical snowfall in many areas of the state. The lack of snow impacted travel and recreation businesses that depend on snow each winter for activities such as downhill and cross-country skiing, snowshoeing, and snowmobiling.
- The 2023-25 biennial budget signed by Gov. Evers appropriated $25 million for an additional round of the Badger Fund of Funds program, and this year, Gov. Evers signed Wisconsin Act 98 that adopted the governor’s recommendations from the past two budgets to remove the requirement that the funds be repaid to the general fund, making the Badger Fund of Funds an evergreen program that can continue to reinvest in Wisconsin venture capital funds and support the state’s entrepreneurial environment.
- The Wisconsin season of Top Chef premiered and included twelve 75-minute episodes, showcasing Wisconsin to global audiences around the world. The show was broadcasted and streamed in 185 different territories. Its massive, dedicated audience resulted in viewership of up to 6 million people per episode. During the season, the Department of Tourism’s Travel Wisconsin team produced an integrated paid, earned, and owned media campaign. This included Travel Wisconsin’s first national TV ad and its largest national public relations effort.
- Gov. Evers signed Assembly Bill (AB) 548, now 2023 Wisconsin Act 170, which requires the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation (WEDC) to create the Wisconsin-Ireland Trade Commission in order to promote trade between Wisconsin and the Republic of Ireland, recommends actions related to issues of mutual interest between Wisconsin and the Republic of Ireland, and encourage mutual economic support and investment and make recommendations to the governor and Legislature.
- Gov. Evers announced the approval of up to $15.5 million in performance-based tax credits to assist Kikkoman Foods Inc. in expanding its operations in Wisconsin. Kikkoman is investing more than $560 million to build this new facility in Jefferson, and together with an additional nearly $250 million expansion effort at the company’s existing facility in Walworth, the projects are expected to create at least 83 new high-paying jobs in Wisconsin over the next 12 years
Comments