The formation of the Wisconsin Business Alliance was announced Thursday at events attended by local business owners in Shorewood, Janesville and Madison.
The nonpartisan membership group will represent business owners statewide and will serve as an alternative organization to the Wisconsin Manufactures & Commerce (WMC) and the National Federation of Independent Business, which have become donors and advocates of the Republican Party.
“We serve as a voice for service providers, high-tech firms, retailers, and other businesses who want policy-makers and the public to understand what’s best for them,” said Wisconsin Business Alliance executive director Lori Compas, who owns a small business in Fort Atkinson.
The organization seeks to get past partisan ideology to represent “common-sense solutions” to the state’s economic problems, Compas said.
“We’re taking the long view and looking at our state’s economy as a whole,” said Compas, who ran as a Democrat and lost in a June recall election against Republican State Sen. Scott Fitzgerald. “When you look at the whole system, it doesn’t make sense for Wisconsin’s largest business organization to advocate for policies that drive wages down. It’s Economics 101: Our economy revolves around consumer spending. Our businesses rely on customers with money in their pockets.”
Compas said the organization will be a voice for member businesses ,and she hopes the Alliance will collaborate with local chambers in the coming years.
“Our outreach programs and policy efforts will support results-based policies and projects,” she said.
The Wisconsin Business Alliance is a 501(c)(6) membership organization. For more information, visit www.WisconsinBusinessAlliance.com.
