APPLETON, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) — More than half of Wisconsin businesses expect the state’s economy will enter a recession this year. That’s the finding of the latest Wisconsin Employer Survey by Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce.
“I firmly believe that we’re already in a recession and we have been for a little while now,” said Riley Brochtrup. “I just hope everyone can pull together and hold on, we’ll get through it.”
Brochtrup and his girlfriend, Katie Diedrick, are from the Fox Valley. They’re also new business owners.
“It definitely was, I don’t want to say a bad time of the year to do it, we just kind of jumped in,” said Diedrick. “But it was definitely scary at first because you don’t know what’s laying ahead, especially if there is a recession.”
The couple recently took over UpLift Nutrition, a health food store in Appleton.
“We love seeing new people everyday, it’s just exciting,” said Diedrick.
According to Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce, the survey found that 39% of Wisconsin business owners rated the state’s economy as strong or very strong. That’s down five points from the survey last summer, and 14 points lower than in the survey a year ago.
Nick Novak, vice president of communications of WMC, says a lot of the issues state businesses are facing, are nothing new.
“We have seen out of control inflation for some time now and unfortunately this most recent survey shows us that it’s not going away anytime soon,” said Novak.
Almost 60% of businesses reported costs increasing by more than 10% in the past year. Down from 67% who reported the same six months ago.
“January first we upped all our prices just because we pay more money for what we have to buy,” said Diedrick. “We do a lot of frozen fruits, peanut butter and eggs, so that definitely has been a crazy increase in price.”
Republican Senate Majority Leader, Devin LeMahieu, thinks he can help. He proposed a flat income tax rate earlier this month.
LeMahieu says moving the rate to 3.25% could help Wisconsin businesses.
“Most Wisconsin businesses are what are known as pass-through entities,” said Novak. “That means they pay the individual income tax.”
WMC agrees.
“By lowering and flattening the tax that businesses pay, they will be able to have more money in their pockets that they can invest into additional capital into expanding their company, reinvesting that into their workers through higher wages,” said Novak.
But Democratic governor, Tony Evers, is against it and has promised to block it, saying it primary benefits the wealthy.
Comments