Below is an excerpt from the most recent edition of WisBusiness Tuesday Trends.
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RISING
Farmland: The value of Wisconsin farmland increased 13 percent between the first quarter of 2011 and the recently completed first quarter of 2012 — rising by 8 percent since the beginning of 2012 alone — according to a new survey by the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. The survey, which questioned 231 agricultural lenders across Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa and Michigan, found that farmland prices across the region rose 19 percent last quarter over the same period in 2011 and 5 percent since January; Wisconsin’s price increase was ahead of Michigan but lagged the other three states. Analysts attributed the increase to record corn and soybean prices, which have created some concerns about a real estate bubble in the farming sector. Observers say that the commodity prices are helping to keep farmers out of debt, unlike the 1980s farming bubble, and that the race to acquire farmland is largely not backed by credit.
MIXED
Jobs: As the political rhetoric heats up ahead of a statewide recall election, a handful of new — and occasionally contradictory — job numbers cloud the picture for Wisconsin’s economic recovery. After weeks of Democratic attacks deriding the governor as presiding over the worst jobs performance in the nation, the Walker administration releases “corrected” figures for 2011 that show the state gained more than 23,000 jobs instead of the nearly 34,000 lost jobs detailed by a previous federal report. The governor’s new numbers are based on employment information from nearly 160,000 employers, and economists say they’re more accurate than previous reports that had larger margins of error. But the administration releases the numbers before they’ve been audited by the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics, which is set to release the final numbers in late June — well after the recall election. Critics charge Walker didn’t like the old job figures so he simply decided to create his own, and they reinforce those claims with new monthly job estimates showing the state lost 5,900 jobs in April even though the unemployment rate dropped slightly to 6.7 percent. Republicans point out a revision of March job estimates that showed a gain instead of the initially projected loss, and grumble that the monthly figures still aren’t matching up to what they’re seeing elsewhere. Democrats, however, point again to federal estimates showing more bad numbers for the state between April of 2011 and last month. Some economists say the bickering overshadows the fact that regardless of whose numbers are taken into account, growth in the state is anemic.
FALLING
Department of Natural Resources: Aside from a massive new land conservation purchase up north, it’s been another week of rough headlines for the DNR. As the controversy over environmental violations in Jefferson and Waukesha counties continues to percolate — Democrats have scheduled a hearing on the waste spreading violation by Herr Environmental this week after it was referred to local prosecutors instead of the state Department of Justice — another report says the number of overall inspections by DNR has dropped sharply in the first year of the Walker administration. Most permit categories saw declines in inspections, including a 46 percent drop in reviews of large farms and a 36 percent drop for private wells. Agency officials say the department faces a worker shortage and they’re still working on meeting federal requirements; critics charge it’s part of a pattern of lax environmental protection at the agency. They note the EPA, in particular, has raised concerns about the DNR’s enforcement practices. Meanwhile, a study of the state’s 17 fish hatcheries says the facilities require $155 million in improvements. DNR officials say they’re looking at a 10-year proposal to renovate or close some hatcheries; the study raises the possibility of increased license fees or a conservation sales tax to make the necessary changes.
