Steve Jagler, for BizTimes Media

Companies interested in starting or improving a corporate wellness plan for their employees are invited to attend the second annual BizTimes Wellness Summit.

How do companies foster the creativity needed to produce their next great business idea, product or service?

Josh Linkner believes he has the answers to that question.

Continuing improvement is expected in the southeastern Wisconsin economy in the second quarter, according to the latest Business Outlook Survey conducted by the Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce (MMAC).

Wisconsin technology executives who responded to the most recent WisBusiness.com Tech Leaders Survey expressed considerably more optimism about the state's economy than those a year ago.

The next state biennial budget will cut funding to the Milwaukee Area Technical College by $7.5 million each year, on top of a $5 million budget cut for 2010 that it was handed in October, according to Michael Burke, president of MATC.

Southeastern Wisconsin manufacturers are overwhelmingly supportive of Walker's proposed budget, says Jeff Hoffman, vice president of Pewaukee-based commercial real estate brokerage firm Judson & Associates. Hoffman, the former president of the Independent Business Association of Wisconsin, primarily handles industrial real estate deals.

Milwaukee's commercial real estate professionals are enthusiastic about Walker's "Wisconsin is open for business" agenda and are glad to see that he is trying to balance the budget without raising taxes, according to Jim Villa, president and chief executive officer of the Commercial Association of Realtors Wisconsin (CARW).

Walker's budget repair bill and proposed state budget would result in a decrease in funding for local transit systems in the state, which will likely prompt service cuts and fare increases, said Kerry Thomas, executive director of Transit Now, an advocacy group for mass transit in southeastern Wisconsin.

The Interfaith Conference of Greater Milwaukee is a nonprofit interfaith agency that represents 13 judicatories and faith denominations in the Milwaukee area. The organization strives to address social issues affecting the quality of life in the Milwaukee area. The 13 denominations represented have approximately 500 congregations of different faiths in the Milwaukee region.

Shahla Werner, chapter director of the Sierra Club's John Muir Chapter in Madison, is concerned about the effects the budget repair bill will have on the environment and the future of many jobs in the state.

University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee officials say they will be forced to cut $27 million out of their budget for the next biennial plan under Walker's proposed budget repair bill.

Gov. Scott Walker's proposed state budget could eliminate $834 million from Wisconsin's schools and local governments. Based on initial calculations, Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS) faces a potential loss of $74 million from its budget for next school year.