State Assembly Democrats met Thursday morning to reveal their plan for reviving the Wisconsin economy in light of the current economic crisis facing the nation.
“There is no question that in these turbulent times for the economy and for families who are trying to pay their bills, Wall Street’s greed nationally has affected Main Street in Wisconsin,” said Rep. Mark Pocan, D-Madison.
Pocan outlined the three main points of the economic improvement plan, including creating new “green” jobs in Wisconsin, improving job training to ensure jobs stay in the state and the country and protecting families from excessive price gouging.
Rep. Spencer Black, D-Madison, also discussed measures to make Wisconsin a leader in both clean energy and clean energy jobs. Black first proposed $30 million for an energy independence grant and loan program to start a movement towards alternative energies.
Black also proposed a 25 percent renewable energy research and development tax credit in order to create more local jobs and help Wisconsin become less dependent on imported fuels, which cost the state over $20 billion a year.
The goal of the Assembly Democrats’ plan is to obtain 25 percent of the state’s energy from renewable energy sources by the year 2025.
Rep. Mike Sheridan, D-Janesville, discussed the need to keep jobs in Wisconsin and also in America.
“We must continue to do more to ensure that jobs we do have stay here and continue to train our workforce so we can capture more good paying, high-tech jobs here in Wisconsin,” Sheridan said.
Sheridan also talked about the efforts to pass the failed American Jobs Act, which would bring General Motors back to the Janesville plant and prohibit the state from granting contracts to companies who send jobs overseas.
The final measure of the Democrats’ plan was presented by Rep. Joe Parisi, D-Madison, who said in order to help make life more affordable for middle class families, the state needs to start enforcing the existing anti-gouging law. The law passed in 2006 and prohibits retailers from raising their prices by more than 10 percent during natural disasters and national emergencies.
Rep. Jon Richards, D-Milwaukee, added a few final notes, saying the party hoped for Republican support on the measures laid out by the Democrats’ plan.
Mike Mikalsen, spokesperson for Rep. Steve Nass, R-Whitewater, said the plan proposed by the Democrats is “not really a plan.”
The proposal fails to address the true issues facing the state’s economy and only applies to larger cities, like Madison and Milwaukee, Mikalsen said.
The Republicans feel that in order to help the state’s economy, legislators should focus on helping existing troubled businesses as their top priority, and in order to come up with the best plan of action, Republicans and Democrats should work together to formulate a plan with more diverse facets, Mikalsen said.