Here & Now

Democrats Announce New Jobs Plan

Chris Larson:

Now that we are at the end of the first month of session and we haven’t seen concrete proposals on creating immediate jobs, we’re here to do that.

Zach Schultz:

Senate and assembly Democrats unveiled a package of nine bills they say will grow jobs. Many of the bills focus on skills training. Others turn tax credits into grants for small businesses.

Fred Clark:

And if a business owner can’t afford to make the investment necessary to capture the benefit of that tax credit, it won’t happen. The Small Business Tax Credit Now bill allows our Wisconsin economic development corporation to structure part of the tax credit as an upfront grant that could be used as part of a financing package with an approved lender.

Zach Schultz:

Another bill would require the state to buy more products from the United States.

Andy Jorgensen:

Today we are bringing forward legislation that will require Wisconsin to find materials made in America when we invest in our infrastructure. There’s good reason for this bill. Other states have started to buy materials for infrastructure improvements from China.

Zach Schultz:

Some of these proposals have the support of Governor Walker and were even included in his second round of special session bills in late 2011. But they were never taken up by the Republican legislature. Democrats have had meetings with the governor and say some ideas may be included in his budget, but that won’t be passed until late June.

Peter Barca:

If he’s sincere, we’ve got some ideas here, something he’s already said he likes. So let’s– we’re just saying, let’s have some urgency, let’s move forward on these.