Photo Credit: Eau Claire Area Chamber of Commerce
At the end of February, a few team members from our division hopped on a bus with other business professionals from the region and traveled down to Madison for a day-long discussion with legislators.
The Year of "Thank You"
This year’s Chippewa Valley Rally, now in its 30th year, highlighted the theme of gratitude, celebrating significant economic achievements outlined in the 2023-25 State Budget and other legislative efforts. Key accomplishments included crucial capital investments in local UW institutions, a compromise on shared revenue for municipalities, repeal of the personal property tax, legislation aimed at improving housing availability and affordability, and initial strides towards expanding passenger rail service to encompass the Chippewa Valley. Despite these successes, unresolved issues such as childcare, tax reform, and the expansion of the EV charging network continued to require attention, and those are what attendees tried to address.
Actions Requested
When speaking with legislators, the group requested attention be turned to the following issues in the coming year:
Approve the UW-Stout Recreation Complex Renovation
Approval of bonding authority has been requested in the 2025-27 budget for UW-Stout’s plan to renovate and expand its Sport and Fitness Center. This $30.5 million building will be funded entirely with donor support and student-approved fees, without the use of taxpayer dollars. In addition to providing enhanced student health and wellness, the complex will benefit other partners including area youth and private industry.
Consider Income Tax Reform Initiatives
We requested that legislators consider tax reform initiatives that would eliminate or significantly decrease the state’s income tax burden. This would enhance the state’s competitiveness and ability to attract and retain talent, while potentially providing an opportunity to address other tax fairness issues without jeopardizing overall state revenues and essential services.
Address the Childcare Crisis
The availability and affordability of childcare has become an increasingly acute issue for employers, families, and childcare providers throughout not just the Chippewa Valley, but the state as well. It has inhibited the ability of families to take full advantage of employment opportunities and for employers to have full access to the potential talent pool. What’s more, childcare providers are faced with a business model that makes it challenging to pay competitive wages and deal with regulatory hurdles. Covid relief funding has provided stopgap assistance to maintain some capacity, but is temporary and inadequate to provide a long-term solution. There is an urgent need for innovation on the part of the state to address the funding, business model, and regulatory oversight of early childhood care and education in ways that will effectively deal with availability, affordability, and accountability for quality and safety. This by necessity must address the business model for childcare providers, especially in their ability to attract and retain motivated, high quality staff.
This issue has spurred a lot of debate and potential legislation. We encouraged all parties to come together to provide meaningful and practical solutions to these issues.
Provide Leadership on Talent Attraction & Retention
It’s essential for the state to help with the workforce shortage through initiatives that can attract and retain talent—including marketing the positive attributes of the state and its regions to attract new talent, encouraging former residents and students to return, highlighting opportunities for transitioning veterans, and keeping Wisconsin graduates in the state. We requested that legislators prioritize development of new initiatives to begin addressing these issues.
Build Out Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure
With significant federal funding for EV stations on the way, we noted that the preparation, planning, and investments to build out Wisconsin’s charging station network must include small and medium-sized communities. Economic development partners such as local electric utilities will play an important role in fulfilling the needs of the traveling public. Legislative action is needed to be able to access this funding and to incentivize the production and deployment of charging infrastructure, and it’s important for all parties to work together to solve the issues that have previously held up such legislation, balancing the need to encourage private enterprise with the need to increase access.
Pass the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law
The law includes significant competitive and formula funding for state and local investments in water infrastructure, roads and bridges, aviation, and freight and passenger rail. We highlighted the importance of Wisconsin being prepared to seek and utilize these funding streams in all areas where they will provide benefits to our economy. Grant funding from both federal and state sources are critical for local governments to maintain and improve their infrastructure. However, state agencies have increasingly required applicants to invest significant costs to provide complete construction plans, specifications, and environmental documents to be able to apply for infrastructure grants, without any sense of whether they are likely to win an award. For smaller entities, this can be a major barrier for them to be able to compete for these available resources. There is a need for the state to consider how it can help these communities be able to access available infrastructure funding.
About The Author
Kendall Sukopp
Marketing & Communications Specialist
Kendall facilitates the Eau Claire Economic Development Division’s marketing plans, communicates with our regional partners, and manages property listings.
