Five Wisconsin non-profits aiming to improve help small businesses grow are getting grants from the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation.

W E D C entrepreneurship director Ed Javier says the 170-thousand dollars in grants doesn’t sound like a lot, but it’s being targeted to places where it can do the most good. 

“This is kind of like in the startup world, we call this kind of like the pilots, right? Where to see if, hey, they have an idea of increasing entrepreneurship for the state. Let’s give them some funding to try it.”

Javier says they’re putting some of that funding in Wausau and Rhinelander to help spur growth outside of southern Wisconsin. “Looking at what we called under-represented I either locations or populations and this was one of those that fit perfectly.”

Groups receiving the funding include the Hmong American Center in Wausau, Nicolet College, and Rising Queens in Beloit. 

The pandemic has put a new focus on Wisconsin’s shortage of commercial truck drivers. Wisconsin Motor Carriers Association Vice President Dan Johnson said it’s not a new problem.

“This has probably been going on for at least the last ten years, maybe even longer than that.”

Johnson said the trucking workforce is “graying,” with many older drivers retiring, and not enough young people entering the field.

“Over time, we see a steady increase of driver shortage, but at the same time we’ve also seen an increase in the amount of freight that’s being moved across the country,” he explained.

Johnson said Wisconsin trucking firms have improved their compensation packages in order to attract and retain drivers. In addition, a provision of the federal infrastructure package would allow drivers ages 18 to 21 to drive interstate routes

“You can drive from Beloit to Superior, if you’re under the age of 21 . . and you’re fine. But you can’t drive from Beloit to Rockford, Illinois because you’re crossing state lines,” Johnson said.

“It’s not just truck drivers. School bus drivers, motor coach drivers, tow truck drivers. There’s a whole host of driver shortages that go much further than just the trucking industry.”

The Department of Workforce Development says employers may have to step up their game if they want to hire and retain employees post pandemic.

DWD Employment Training administrator Michele Carter says the Department has seen a shift in employment away from food service and tourism industries. 

“We see them moving from those, maybe trying to find more secure, steadier work schedules, right? Knowing how much money they’re going to make.”

Carter says employers who offer more competitive wages and job benefits like child care are having a better time retaining their workers, and enticing those who have left the job market back into the workforce. 

Anyone who’s looking to find a better job themselves can always come to find training, says Carter.

“I think as people come to us we can help guide them and match them with some of those employer needs. The needs of the future, not just what we used to do.”

DWD says many people who left the workforce due to the pandemic are unable to get back to work because of a lack of services to assist them, like affordable child care. Republicans are blaming the lack of workers on improved unemployment benefits.

Republican leaders in the Wisconsin legislature have drafted a bill to end $300 in weekly federal payments, to people who aren’t working.

State Senator Howard Marklein (R-Spring Green) said he’s spoken with a number of employers in his district, including one who told him ” we’re no longer competing with other employers, we’re no longer competing with Illinois, we’re no longer competing with Iowa. We’re competing with the couch.'”

Sen. Howard Marklein

“When you pay people more to stay home, they stay home,” Marklein said during a Tuesday press conference at the Capitol.

Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R-Rochester) said, when combined with state UI benefits, the pandemic-related federal payment disincentivizes work.

“On unemployment today, you are making 16 dollars and 75 cents an hour, and not required to look for work. Well, if you can go and work at 14 dollars an hour, how many people are going to make that choice,” Vos said. “People might make the financial decision to stay home, where the government is paying them to sit on their couch, more than somebody would pay them to actually do work.”

Vos said the bill encourages unemployed individuals to return to work amid a statewide worker shortage. It ends Wisconsin’s participation in federal unemployment enhancement programs that provide disincentives to return to work.

I announced a bill with @SenMarklein that encourages unemployed individuals to return to work amid a statewide worker shortage. It ends Wisconsin’s participation in federal unemployment enhancement programs that provide disincentives to return to work.https://t.co/uwhcIaL82T

— Speaker Robin Vos (@SpeakerVos) May 18, 2021

He hopes to have a hearing on the bill next week, and a vote by the full Assembly by next month. A statement from Governor Tony Evers’ office indicates the bill would face a likely veto.

“If Republicans are interested in putting this pandemic behind us, they’ll stop playing politics with our economic recovery and pass the governor’s Badger Bounceback agenda so we can invest in making healthcare more affordable, supporting our kids and our public schools, and building infrastructure and creating jobs across our state,” said Evers’ spokesperson Britt Cudaback.

Wisconsin’s unemployment rate in March was 3.8%, although considerably higher in some communities.

Republican governors of more than a dozen states have announced that they will soon cease paying their state’s unemployed residents the federal jobless supplement, curtailing benefits for about 2 million Americans.

Eau Claire County has received a grant from the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation, for a pilot program to provide high-speed internet in rural areas.

As the county’s information systems director Dave Hayden explains, the service will be out of this world.

“We’re going to pilot SpaceX Starlink low orbit satellite technology, in an unserved an underserved area of southeastern Eau Claire County, just south of Augusta.”

The pilot project will provide high-speed internet to 50 rural homes and businesses. It’s being supported by a $27,000 grant from WEDC, as well as funding from a group of healthcare providers.

‘We’re moving forward hopefully in the next couple of weeks, notifying the participants that we’ve selected and getting them connected,” said Hayden

Participants will be asked to fill out a weekly survey to gauge service and reliability over the year-long period covered by the grant. SpaceX plans to launch additional satellites, which Hayden says should improve service.