MADISON, Wis. (WSAU) — Wisconsin State Senate leadership still has work to do as the legislative session winds down. Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald says before the session ends, Republicans want to do more to help economic development expand statewide. He says a good place to start is to have a committee get out and listen to business operators. “We want to kind of take the economic development committee, the standing committee, which is actually headed by Senator Rick Gudex, and visit a number of different sites to kind of see what’s on business people’s minds, not only to talk a little bit about the employment gap, but also to see what are some other things that we should be doing?”
He says Senators Alberta Darling and Sheila Harsdorf have led in this area, and have already brought back business input, which is leading to new legislation yet this winter. “They came back with a number of very specific proposals that we’re currently crafting, and we expect to have something on the floor, possibly in late February or early March, but I would say if there’s any marque piece that we’re working on right now going into the election cycle, it’s probably going to be that.”
Fitzgerald says Wisconsin lost a lot of jobs when the economic downturn happened. In light manufacturing, he says the state saw about 168,000 jobs go overseas or to other states. Now, he says we are seeing signs of a slow but steady recovery. “We’re seeing some good things, I mean, as much focus as there is always on what are the jobs numbers, the three major sectors in Wisconsin, which are for the most part, agriculture, tourism, and manufacturing are coming back.”
There is another area Fitzgerald says Wisconsin needs to improve to bring back jobs, and that’s taxes. “We still have a high level of taxation in this state. That needs to change to be competitive, but just a couple of things that we’ve done in this last session, whether it’s right to work or prevailing wage. I know their contentious, but in the long run, I think it’s going to position the state better to be competitive down the road.”
Democrats have been critical of Republicans for their policies, saying they are not good for middle class jobs. Fitzgerald disagrees, saying that during their five year majority, Republicans have helped improve the state’s economic outlook, and that jobs have been created as a direct result of bills they passed and reforms they have made.
(Listen to our interview with Senator Fitzgerald on our website, here.)
