During the last three months of 2023, state governments collected more than $758 million in taxes from sports betting, a 26 percent jump compared to the final quarter of 2022. Among the states bringing in the most tax receipts: Ohio, Illinois and Indiana. Nationwide, only New York and Pennsylvania collected more than these three Midwestern states, which accounted for 90 percent of the total in this 11-state region (see bar graph for state-by-state information). The end-of-year data comes from the U.S. Census Bureau’s “Quarterly Survey of State and Local Revenue.” With the exception of Wisconsi ..read more

The CSG Justice Center has created two new resources for policymakers: 1) “Five Ways States Can Reduce Violent Crime”; and 2) snapshots for each of the 50 states on what the most up-to-date data show about trends in crime, arrests, behavioral health, workforce, recidivism and more. This article describes each part of the five-point plan. For state policymakers, staff at the CSG Justice Center is available to help unpack the data and dig deeper into how to improve community safety. Please contact the CSG Justice Center’s Madeleine Dardeau to learn more. #1: Solve more cases of violent crime Nat ..read more

The long-term consequences for habitually missing school are numerous. A student falls behind in reading comprehension during the pivotal early grades. Social-emotional development is diminished. And it becomes more common that a young person will not graduate on time or will drop out of school entirely. In every Midwestern state, students are considered “chronically absent” if they miss 10 percent or more of the school year. This attendance problem worsened during the pandemic, and despite a return to in-person learning, rates of chronic absenteeism have yet to drop back down to pre-pandemic ..read more

The Midwest Interstate Passenger Rail Commission in March received a two-year, Interstate Rail Compacts (IRC) grant of up to $300,000 from the Federal Railroad Administration. This is the first funding being made available under the new IRC grant program, which was created in the federal Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021 (the “Bipartisan Infrastructure Law”). The FRA announced the opportunity for the first round of funding, for federal fiscal years 2022 and 2023, in May 2023. A team of MIPRC officers, commissioners and partners prepared the commission’s application, which was subm ..read more

The property tax, Joan Youngman says, “will never have a quiet life.” On the one hand, people are reminded every day of the critical amenities provided through this local revenue source — schools, roads, police, etc. “Voters are aware of their property values and of the services, and that’s a good thing for [local] accountability and responsible decision making,” says Youngman, a senior fellow and chair of the Department of Valuation and Taxation at the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy. On the other hand, they also are mindful of the costs. How much did you pay last year in property taxes? Peo ..read more

In recent years, most Midwestern states have legislatively revised their respective high school graduation requirements to include mandated instruction in financial literacy. In 2023 alone, three states (Indiana, SB 35; Minnesota, HF 2497; and Wisconsin, AB 109) enacted laws requiring one semester of financial literacy education starting with the graduating class of 2028. The Wisconsin measure, signed by the governor in December, marked the culmination of a multi-year journey. Back in 2017, lawmakers approved AB 280, which tasked local school boards with adopting and incorporating financial li ..read more

Population trends have returned to pre-pandemic norms, the U.S. Census Bureau says, but most of the growth is concentrated in a single region: the South. That region added more than 1.4 million residents and accounted for 87 percent of the nation’s total growth in 2023. Over the course of this single year, southern states added 706,266 people due to patterns of domestic migration alone. Every other region was a net loser due to this movement of people within the United States: a loss of 85,729 in the Midwest (Missouri included), 323,300 in the East, and 297,327 in the West. If these trends con ..read more

Recent legislation and regulatory changes are clearing a path to develop a new generation of “small modular” nuclear reactors that advocates say could play a role in Midwestern states’ efforts to decarbonize their electric-power sectors. Small modular reactors (SMRs) are a category that includes many different designs and technologies, all with one thing in common — individual reactors are designed to generate 300 megawatts or less and can connect to other modules to boost overall output. Nuclear power already produces 45.5 percent of the country’s carbon-free energy, says Christine Csizmadia ..read more

Nebraska Sen. Tom Brewer represents a legislative district in the north central part of the state that stretches 300 miles long and 200 miles wide. “There are only four locations with a hospital,” he says. Miles and miles also separate a patient from the nearest provider in all kinds of health care areas and specialties; it’s a geographic and health care reality that his district shares with other rural areas in the Midwest. The problem is not new, and telehealth has long been identified as a way to help close gaps in health care access. However, it had failed to gain widespread use until the ..read more

CSG Midwest tracks the redistricting process and related developments in each of the 11 states of the Midwestern Legislative Conference. During the most recent redistricting cycle, it was most common for new congressional and state legislative district boundaries to be drawn and approved by the full state legislature, and then signed into law by the governor. This was the process used in Illinois, Indiana, Kansas (override of a gubernatorial in one instance), Nebraska, North Dakota and South Dakota. However, there also was some notable variation this time around: Michigan’s first-ever use of ..read more