The Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation is aiming to help put new business owners in contact with each other, and the experts they need to expand.

The program is called Start in Wisconsin and WEDC CEO Missy Hughes says the state’s economy has been damaged, and they’re helping people get businesses back on the market.

“We need a vibrant ecosystem, a vibrant economy, and one business is not going to do that, so we want businesses to be moving through the cycle of idea to start up to scale up.”

Hughes says they’ve carefully worked to ensure that all the topics and information on the new program are up to date and helpful to people. 

“The worst thing that we can do is to provide information that creates more work for someone who’s already no doubt overwhelmed with trying to start a business. What we do is relieve stress and certainly not add to it.”

Hughes says they’re aiming to help get Wisconsin’s economy back on track by supporting the next generation of new businesses.

You and your business can get signed up and learn more online at Start in WI.com. 

State trade officials say Foxconn will not be getting any tax breaks, for work done in 2019. The Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation announced on Monday that Foxconn had failed to meet its contracted goals for qualifying for those state aids.

The original contract, touted by President Donald Trump and then Governor Scott Walker, would have given the Taiwanese tech firm $4 billion to build a top of the line LCD plant in southeast Wisconsin.

Since then the company has repeatedly scaled back its plans, and WEDC Secretary Melissa Hughes said the company won’t see any more funding unless they come back to renegotiate a contract with the state, the Journal Sentinel reports.

According WEDC, Foxconn has hired only 281 people eligible for tax credits and has made only $300 million in capital expenditures, not fulfilling the goals set out in the contract signed by Foxconn and the state.

The Journal Sentinel reports that in April, Foxconn stated publicly that it had hired enough workers to be eligible for tax credits.

Facebook is continuing to take steps to limit the sort of content it allows on its platform, and says it will stop allowing political advertising once the election season is over.

Madison College marketing professor Steve Noll says these actions might be too little too late for the company as it looks at an uncertain future after the election.

“I really hope that you know Facebook can do the right thing, that history is going to be able to look back on them 30 years from now and show that they are on the right side of history, but I don’t know. I’m really not necessarily seeing that that’s their behavior.”

Facebook has come under fire for allowing false and misleading ads on its platform, and has only recently started kicking dangerous groups like Q-Anon and Holocaust deniers.

Noll says it seems like Facebook wants the clout for banning ads, while still taking political money. 

“These political ads cost money to run and Facebook shareholders want that revenue. It’s a very complicated problem of dancing the fine line between ethics and the bottom line for shareholders.”

Noll says it’s a good first step, but that the company needs to tread carefully in the months ahead as talks start to brew over breaking up big tech firms.

Wisconsin’s infrastructure has received a mediocre grade. The Wisconsin Section of the American Society of Civil Engineers 2020 Report Card gives the state an overall grade of ‘C’ – or mediocre – in 13 categories of infrastructure.

Water and energy infrastructure systems have received significant investments but roads and transit received the lowest grades in the report, each earning a ‘D+.’

Those roads cost drivers 6 billion dollars annually from vehicle wear and tear, wasted fuel due to congestion and costs of crashes.

The full report can be found at infrastructurereportcard.org/state-item/wisconsin/

Seehafer News/WOMT