Rep. VanAkkeren sees good reason to praise the state budget

The state budget is, hands down, the most substantial piece of legislation to come before the Wisconsin State Legislature during a two-year legislative session. It is very comprehensive and covers the funding of every state agency and program, from the Department of Administration to the Department of Workforce Development – and everything in between.

Passing a state budget is the most important task of a newly elected state legislature. This is especially true in times of an economic downturn. State programs would continue to be funded as under the previous budget, but state funding would not keep pace. This would lead to a state economic crisis.

It’s very easy when you’re in the minority party to vote no on a state budget and then attack provisions in the bill which you don’t like as Sen. Leibham has done in some of his weekly columns and e-updates. Nobody likes everything in a state budget. As anyone who’s ever tried to get a committee or group of people to agree on something can tell you … compromise is needed to reach an agreement. If voting yes means you support everything in a budget (or a budget adjustment bill), then voting no means that you are against everything in the budget. This means that Sen. Leibham, who claims to be focused on bringing more private sector jobs to our state, voted against a number of economic development programs that are already helping to create or retain jobs in Wisconsin.

These state economic development programs have been directly responsible for helping us to create or retain jobs at Herman Miller, Eclipse Manufacturing, Morgan Aircraft, and, to our west, Mercury Marine.

State funded programs in the Budget Adjustment Bill and the State Budget have directly helped create and retain jobs in Wisconsin at these businesses, as well as others. I voted in favor of these economic development programs. But, if you voted again these bills, you also voted against these programs.

The plans to expand Morgan Aircraft in Sheboygan County have the potential of creating over 1,700 jobs. Although the complete package has not yet been finalized, a good part of the funding to aid Morgan Aircraft comes from the Enterprise Development Zone Program. This program provides businesses with tax credits vital to economic development. The 2009 Wisconsin Act 2 and the State Budget made vital changes to the Enterprise Development Zone Program to make this program more powerful than other state economic development programs. Tax credits under this expanded program can be claimed by a business for up to 12 years, assuming they create/retain jobs over that time period. We also acted to make the credit refundable, which will allow businesses to obtain a refund if their credit is greater than their state tax liability.

The Enterprise Development Zone Program is also a vital component in the state financial assistance offer to Mercury Marine. Fond du Lac-based Mercury Marine employs approximately 1,850 jobs in the manufacturing and corporate divisions. This program, along with local incentives and worker concessions, is part of what led Mercury to keep these jobs in Wisconsin and plan to transfer jobs from Oklahoma to Wisconsin (an estimated 380 jobs).

The Eclipse Manufacturing consolidation in Sheboygan, announced at the end of July, will help us to retain 57 jobs in the Sheboygan area and create another 57 positions, for a total of 114 jobs! Their decision to consolidate in Sheboygan, where they have been headquartered since 1939, is due in part to the capital financing award in the form of a $375,000 loan from the state.

Herman Miller, which many of you probably still think of as Nemschoff Chairs, has also made the decision, with the help of state economic development programs, to consolidate in Sheboygan. According to a press release from Gov. Doyle, Herman Miller is expected to create up to 150 jobs, while retaining 394 jobs in Sheboygan due to the state aid in the form of a $500,000 loan and $750,000 in tax credits.

In addition, the state budget provides $60 million in general obligation bonding for the state’s freight rail preservation program. This program will provide the funding to re-establish the rail line between Sheboygan Falls and Plymouth. I was able to gain the support of the Assembly’s chair of the Joint Committee on Finance, who worked on my behalf to support Gov. Doyle’s proposed increase in the program. In recent years, attempts by area legislators to obtain this funding failed.

The restoration of this rail line between Sheboygan Falls and Plymouth is important to both Bemis Manufacturing and Richardson Industries. In addition, according to Plymouth Mayor Don Pohlman, the restoration of the line is expected to bring new investments and a new manufacturer to the area and, along with them, will add several hundred new jobs to the area! But, if you voted against the budget, Senator, you voted against the funding for the Freight Rail Preservation Program.

The budget adjustment bill and state budget also provided much-needed funds to the Wisconsin

Technical College System’s training grant program. This program and these additional funds will allow our state’s technical colleges to continue to provide training/retraining assistance to our state’s employers, which helps them keep their workforce highly skilled in today’s technology and their businesses competitive in the global marketplace.

The budget and the earlier budget adjustment bill are providing the necessary programs and funding to help our state create and retain jobs. In these challenging economic times, these programs are vital and, without them, Wisconsin’s economic situation would be more dire than it is.

Contact Me: If you would like to contact me regarding this or any other issue, you may call my office at (888) 529-0026 or you can e-mail me at: Rep.VanAk keren@legis.state.wi.us. And, of course, if you want to send me a letter, you can send that to: Rep. Terry Van Akkeren, P.O. Box 8953, Madison, WI 53708- 8953.