Gov. Jim Doyle signed a bill into law Friday that will use federal stimulus money to fund green-energy job creation projects around the state.
Sen. Julie Lassa, D-Stevens Point, said the bill would produce funding for economic projects that will generate jobs in Wisconsin, most immediately through the proposed Energy Composites wind blade-manufacturing plant in Wisconsin Rapids that is predicted to create 600 jobs.
“I do believe that all across the state of Wisconsin, we will see additional projects and jobs being created that will come up as a result of this bill,” Lassa said.
The projects will be funded through money from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, which allows local governments and counties to issue tax-exempt conduit bonds, or Recovery Zone Facility Bonds, for private sector economic development projects.
Wisconsin received approximately $238 million in recovery zone bonds, which were divided among the 72 counties in the state. Many counties, however, were not eligible for a large enough share of the funding to effectively provide financing for economic development projects.
Under the new law, counties that have not used their bond allocation by June 2010 would have their shares entered into a statewide pool. The Department of Commerce will be in charge of using the pool to fund development projects, such as Energy Composites.
“The Recovery Act has given us this powerful tool to create new jobs here in Wisconsin, especially in the emerging clean energy economy,” Doyle said in a statement. “By pooling these resources together, we will make sure we take full advantage of this opportunity and move forward job-creating projects across the state.”
In addition to the 600 jobs being created through the Energy Composite project, there could be 1,000 jobs created by the bill through other projects in central Wisconsin Lassa said.
Sen. Marlin Schneider, D-Wisconsin Rapids, said a wind blade-manufacturing plant could have the capacity to create 600 to 1,000 jobs in Wisconsin Rapids, as well as jobs outside of those produced by the Energy Composites project.
“When real wealth is created, there are spin-offs that occur in other sectors of the economy, such as sales, housing, tourism and appliances,” Schneider said.
