What America could do with $150 billion lost to offshore tax havens
Many corporations and wealthy individuals use offshore tax havens—countries with minimal or no taxes—to avoid paying $150 billion in U.S. taxes each year. By shielding their income from U.S. taxes,...
View ArticleOutside Spending, Outsized Influence
Super PACs dominated the 2012 Senate election between Tammy Baldwin and Tommy Thompson, providing an avenue for floods of out-of-state money to fill WIsconsin's airwaves with negative ads. Outside...
View ArticleElections Confidential
Elections Confidential reveals, to the extent possible, the dark side of the post-Citizens United election landscape. Secret donors used "dark money" groups that don't have to disclose their donors,...
View ArticleBillion Dollar Democracy
Billion Dollar Democracy is the final edition in our series of reports analyzing the role of money in the 2012 elections. The first presidential election since Citizens United lived up to the hype,...
View ArticleHighway Boom, Budget Bust
This report questions whether the state of Wisconsin might be wasting huge sums of taxpayer money on unnecessary projects by planning to invest heavily in new roads and highway expansions that are out...
View ArticleThe Hidden Cost of Offshore Tax Havens
This report reveals how abuse of tax loopholes hurts taxpayers not just once, but twice, as the state of Wisconsin lost an estimated $814 million in revenue in 2012 due to offshore tax dodging
View ArticleFollowing the Money 2013
Wisconsin received an “F” for government spending transparency, according to “Following the Money 2013: How the States Rank on Providing Online Access to Government Spending Data,” the fourth annual...
View ArticlePicking Up the Tab 2013
Many multinational corporations and wealthy Americans use accounting tricks and offshore tax havens to avoid paying taxes on profits and income that they earned in the U.S. Right now these practices...
View ArticleA New Direction
The Driving Boom—a six decade-long period of steady increases in per-capita driving in the United States—is over. Americans drive fewer total miles today than we did eight years ago, and fewer per...
View ArticleRoad Overkill
A new report from the WISPIRG Foundation finds that usage of seven recently completed highways has not developed as projected, and questions whether building massive and costly new highways is the best...
View ArticleBig Banks, Big Complaints
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has created and made available to the public the Consumer Complaint Database. The database tracks complaints made by consumers to the CFPB and the...
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A New Way to Go
America is in the midst of a technological revolution … and a big shift in our transportation habits. Over the last 15 years, the Internet and mobile communications technologies have transformed the...
View ArticlePrivate Loans, Public Complaints
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) was established in 2010 in the wake of the worst financial crisis in decades. Its mission is to identify dangerous and unfair financial practices, to...
View ArticleFood Safety Scares 2013
This report offers a snapshot look, from October 2012 to October 2013, at multistate foodborne illness outbreaks identified by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Failures in the rules...
View ArticleBig Credit Bureaus, Big Mistakes
This report is the third of several that review complaints to the CFPB nationally and on a state-by-state level. In this report, we explore consumer complaints about credit bureaus with the aim of...
View ArticleTrouble in Toyland
The 2013 Trouble in Toyland report is the 28th annual Wisconsin Public Interest Research Group (WISPIRG) survey of toy safety. In this report, WISPIRG provides safety guidelines for consumers when...
View ArticleTransportation in Transition
Americans’ transportation habits have changed. The average American drives 7.6 percent fewer miles today than when per-capita driving peaked in 2004. A review of data from the Federal Highway...
View ArticleShould I Stay or Should I Go?
Many consumers who buy their own health insurance face a big decision right now. Should you renew your existing plan, or switch to a new one? Here are our tips for consumers, and a checklist to help...
View ArticleCredit Cards, Consumer Complaints
Wisconsin consumers file more complaints about Capital One than any other credit card company, according to a report released by the WISPIRG Foundation. The report, which looked at data from the...
View ArticleFixing the Broken Textbooks Market
The cost of college textbooks has skyrocketed in recent years. To students and families already struggling to afford high tuition and fees, an additional $1,200 per year on books and supplies can be...
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