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WEDC sends out grants to help groups create small businesses

February 21, 2022 By Raymond Neupert

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. 

Filed Under: Business, News, Politics / Govt

Center for COVID Control testing sites remain closed

January 25, 2022 By Bob Hague

WRN image

A coronavirus testing company accused of fraud has closed its locations around Wisconsin. No one knows if or when they’ll reopen.

The Center for COVID Control had planned to reopen last week, but will remain closed for a while longer. The CCC is facing serious questions, and at least five lawsuits, over whether it performed coronavirus tests. The CCC has closed all of its offices across the country.

The FBI served search warrants on the company Monday. The state attorneys general in Illinois and Minnesota are investigating.

 

Filed Under: Business, Health / Medicine, News

Evers provides pandemic relief grants to movie theaters

December 8, 2021 By Bob Hague

Miner Theater marquee Ladysmith

Wisconsin’s movie theatres, which have struggled through the coronavirus pandemic, have received a financial shot in the arm.

Governor Tony Evers on Tuesday announced more than $10 million in pandemic relief grants to theaters.

“We were shut down immediately. We are one of the last sectors of the economy, if not the last, to get back to full recovery, whatever that is,” said theater owner George Rouman of Rhinelander, who heads the National Association of Theater Owners of Wisconsin and Upper Michigan. “We’re nowhere near back to pre-pandemic levels right now. But today’s announcement was huge.”

The Movie Theater Assistance Grant Program provides approximately $15,000 per screen to 49 theater companies. This is the second pandemic relief program to assist the movie theater industry in Wisconsin, bringing the total investment in Wisconsin’s movie theaters to $20 million.

“This governor’s office has proven to us that he cares about arts and entertainment and culture, and what we bring to communities,” Rouman said.

Minor league sports teams and summer camps were also part of this latest round of Evers’ more than $140 million investment to help the tourism and entertainment industries recover from the effects of the pandemic.

 

Filed Under: Business, Health / Medicine, News, Politics / Govt

Pandemic exacerbates shortage of truck drivers in Wisconsin

October 20, 2021 By Bob Hague

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.”

Filed Under: Business, News, Politics / Govt

New bill seeks to move Wisconsin Elections Commission to Wausau

September 17, 2021 By Raymond Neupert

A Republican lawmaker from Green Bay is looking to move the state elections commission to Wausau.

Representative David Steffen says that the days of keeping offices in Madison for the sake of being in Madison are over. 

“It made sense 173 years ago to have everything together when a person like myself had to get on a pony, put on a powdered wig to walk over, to get over to someone else’s office, to sit by whale-oil light to make a decision but that’s no longer the situation.”

He says Wausau is a central location in the state on two major highways, and rent would be much cheaper than in Madison. 

“Their lease is expiring at the end of the year for office space that cost twice that of almost every other community in the state.”

This is not the first attempt to start moving state agencies out of Madison. There’s been an effort to move the DNR farther north for many years.

Filed Under: Business, Legislature, News, Politics / Govt

Assembly Republicans fail to overturn veto on federal unemployment benefits

July 27, 2021 By Raymond Neupert

Assembly Republicans unsuccessfully attempted to overturn Governor Evers’ veto of a bill that would have ended federal unemployment benefits.

Assembly Speaker Robin Vos says it’s unfair that businesses have to compete with the federal government. 

“If you pay people over $17 an hour tax free to stay home and not work there are going to be fewer people working it’s not rocket science.”

Minority leader Gordon Hintz says the numbers that Republicans and business leaders are quoting just don’t make sense. 

“You can look right at the unemployment numbers. They continue to go down.  Fewer people are filing unemployment; they’ve gone down the $300 bump.”

Wisconsin’s unemployment rate is 3 point 9 percent, and is below the national average, and many workers have left the retail and service sectors for other positions during the pandemic. 

Filed Under: Business, News, Politics / Govt, Taxes, Top Story

Nekoosa lawmaker asks for 50 million dollar loan for restarting idled papermill in Wisconsin Rapids

June 2, 2021 By Raymond Neupert

A bill authored by Representative Scott Krug of Nekoosa which calls for W E D C to issue a fifty million dollar loan to the co-op looking to buy the idled Verso paper mill will get a hearing Wednesday in Madison.

Krug says the plant was a vital part of business and industry in the Northwoods. 

“I honestly get more emails and phone calls from people in the Northwoods than people from Wisconsin Rapids because that’s how much of an impact this has on the upper 2/3 of the state of Wisconsin.”

Others who have signaled their support for the bill include Republicans Patrick Testin, Pat Snyder, Jim Edming, and John Spiros. 

Krug says he’s proposed the single bill to take politics out of the project, especially after Governor Evers’ comments about possibly vetoing the entire state budget:

“I don’t want Politics on this. I just want a clean bill, a yes or no vote. A day for Wisconsin Rapids to be heard in the Assembly. A day for Wisconsin Rapids to be heard in the Senate. A day for the Wisconsin Rapids area to be heard by the Governor.”

It’s unclear if the governor would sign the bill. 

Filed Under: Business, Legislature, News, Politics / Govt

DWD says employers may have to step up if they want to find and retain workers

May 21, 2021 By Raymond Neupert

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.

 

Filed Under: Business, News, Politics / Govt

Republicans announce bill to end $300 weekly federal unemployment benefit

May 19, 2021 By Bob Hague

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.

Filed Under: Business, News, Politics / Govt

WEDC grant hooks up rural Eau Claire County in pilot program with SpaceX Starlink

May 14, 2021 By Bob Hague

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.

Filed Under: Business, News, Politics / Govt

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