Governor Scott Walker laid out some of his accomplishments so far and his plans to spur job growth, while speaking to a gathering of small business owners, investors and researchers.
At the SBIR/STTR spring conference in Madison this morning, Walker reiterated his goal of adding 250,000 jobs by 2015. Although welcoming of major employers that can add 500-or-1000 new positions, the Governor said the threshold can only be reached through small businesses which hire 10-to-50 people at a time.
Walker said his special session legislation including tax breaks, tort reform, and changes to health savings accounts has resulted in 13,000 jobs added in the first two months of the year, 8,200 of which were in manufacturing.
The Governor also mentioned the Wisconsin State Journal’s endorsement Sunday of his plan, along with UW-Madison Chancellor Biddy Martin, to give public authority to the campus. This split from the rest of the UW-System, would provide the flexibility necessary to ensure world class research and development at the Madison campus, said Walker.
The Board of Regents instead favors a plan that would grant all schools in the UW-System more autonomy of budgeting, tuition, research and other functions.