Walker promises responsiveness to business

Governor-elect Scott Walker told a friendly audience of 300 commercial real estate professionals this morning at the NAIOP and Commercial Association of Realtors Wisconsin (CARW) annual market update that his administration will be aggressive in its efforts to stimulate private sector job creation in the state and will quickly respond to businesses seeking state assistance.
Both NAIOP and CARW endorsed Walker for governor.
“Government can either be a burden for economic development or it can be an advocate for economic development,” Walker said. “I want to be the latter. I want to be an advocate.”
Walker said that if his office is informed that a business in the state is considering plans to create 50 or more jobs he will personally call that business to offer assistance. Walker also said he will have someone on his staff respond to any business inquiry for state assistance within 24 hours.
“I’m tired of hearing employers say, ‘I contacted the state and, two months later, I never heard back,'” Walker said. “We can’t have that.”
Walker said he plans to try to entice businesses to move to Wisconsin from other states. He wants to offer any company that moves its corporate headquarters from another state to Wisconsin two years of free corporate income tax. The state has nothing to lose by making this offer because out-of-state businesses “are not paying taxes here right now,” Walker said.
Walker said all of his cabinet appointments for every department need to make job creation a priority.
“Everyone in our cabinet has got to have a bit of the chamber of commerce attitude,” he said. “The DNR secretary is just as important to commerce as the secretary of Commerce is.”
That doesn’t mean the state will no longer protect its natural resources, Walker said. The environment plays a critical role in the state’s economy, especially for the tourism and agriculture industries, he said. But the DNR has to take a more reasonable approach in dealing with businesses, he said. The state can protect its natural resources and promote economic development at the same time, Walker said.
Walker said he would make a formal announcement today about his plans to eliminate the state tax on health savings accounts. Wisconsin is one of only four states that tax HSAs, he said.
That is not a “panacea” for high health insurance costs and other changes must be made at the state and federal level, Walker said, but he said, “one of the best ways to empower employers to get a handle on their health care costs is to not tax health savings accounts.”
Walker reiterated his plans to reform the Department of Commerce shifting its role of regulating business to other departments and refocusing the Department of Commerce solely on economic development initiatives. Some business regulations could be eliminated entirely, if they are unnecessary, he said.
“Right now, the Department of Commerce is more about regulating commerce than promoting commerce,” Walker said. “That’s got to change. If we’re going to create 250,000 jobs in the state we can’t do things the way we have been doing them. We have to be more aggressive.”
Walker again said he plans after his inauguration to immediately declare an economic emergency in the state and call a special session of the Legislature, which now has a Republican majority in the state Assembly and Senate, to pass an aggressive economic development and private sector job creation package within 45 days. That package will include tax cuts for small business owners and reduced state government regulation of business, he said.
“We want to make it as easy to do business in the state of Wisconsin as possible,” Walker said. “It’s not enough to say we are open for business, we have to show it (by legislative action). And then we have to market the state to businesses. I know we can turn this state around.”
– BizTimes Milwaukee