Wisconsin Competitiveness Report - Episode 1 | Red Tape VS Red Carpet | Kurt Bauer & Wade Goodsell

Added: 2026-06-02

[00:00:00]Some states roll out the red carpet for families and businesses. Others roll out the red tape.

[00:00:06]Wisconsin is falling behind. A declining population and a stagnant workforce, an unworkable [music] regulatory environment and poor educational outcomes, runaway healthcare costs and an unaffordable [music] tax burden on families and businesses.

[00:00:22]The choices we make now matter. It's our [music] responsibility to lead with solutions that move our state forward.

[00:00:29]This is the Wisconsin Competitiveness Report.

[00:00:36]>> Hello, my name is Kurt Bauer. I'm president and CEO of Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce. Welcome to the Competitiveness Report, a limited series podcast that WMC is doing through the election cycle, and it's loosely based on our Competitiveness Report what was issued by the WMC Foundation in February. I'm joined by uh Wade Goodsell, who is president of the foundation. Wade, tell us a little bit about the foundation and then we'll talk about the Competitiveness Report.

[00:01:00]>> Where WMC is the board of directors for the state's economy, our goal is for the WMC Foundation and through thought leadership like this report to be the futurists and the thought leaders of the Wisconsin economy.

[00:01:12]>> So, we talk about taxes, workforce, education attainment, regulation, healthcare, and to some extent we talk a little bit about the fiscal environment of this of of the state. Let's talk a little bit about taxes in Wisconsin. Uh the report clearly shows we're the 12th highest corporate rate in the country, eighth highest property taxes in the country, and the ninth highest for personal income tax.

[00:01:34]Why is that bad? Why Why does that hurt the Wisconsin economy? How does that impact business investment and talent attraction?

[00:01:42]>> Well, in short In short, we're in tax hell. I know that's a technical term, but in terms of corporate income tax, whether it's human or financial capital, flows to where it's welcome. So, that is a corporate tax rate with the governor's proposal that raised that in of his last four budgets, makes investment in the state much harder. With the property taxes, what it does is it makes home ownership unaccessible for many. And then the individual income rate, as you know, Kurt, 95% of our members and 95% of the state's business community, that's really the small business tax.

[00:02:13]That top personal rate is the tax that pass-through entities pay. And so what it does is it makes entrepreneurship out of reach and unaffordable for many.

[00:02:21]>> I'm glad you emphasized that the property tax issue because it does have a major impact on being able to achieve the home ownership, the American dream of home ownership. And there's a data point that I put in a column that I wrote promoting the competitiveness report where 10 years ago the average age of the first-time home buyer in the state of Wisconsin was 29. Today it's 40.

[00:02:42]>> Wow.

[00:02:42]>> And that that property tax has a lot to do with that. And of course WMC's other foundation, the litigation center, challenged the 400-year veto.

[00:02:52]Unfortunately, that was unsuccessful and the legislature's attempt to to overturn it via the legislative process has failed. That's likely to stick around for the the foreseeable future, which is a real challenge for trying to bring people into the state of Wisconsin.

[00:03:07]>> And you pencil it out with the governor's proposal and the 400-year autopilot property tax increase of $325 plus $325 plus $325.

[00:03:18]Now over the next 20 years property taxes are going to double in the state.

[00:03:22]You don't need a 24-page report to say that is not going to help affordability.

[00:03:26]So recommendation number one, stop the digging. Do no harm.

[00:03:31]>> Exactly. So let's talk about workforce.

[00:03:34]We've kind of alluded to it a little bit. We want to attract business investment. We want to attract talent into the state. We've got a major demographic challenge in the in the state. What does the competitiveness report tell us about that?

[00:03:45]>> Well, it's it's challenging. At a high level the competitiveness report gets to are we going to be a state that's red tape for business or a state that's red carpet for business? And unfortunately, when you look at our tax landscape, the demographic trends, the K-12 achievement, and the health care costs, that extraordinarily high cost of health care in Wisconsin, we're becoming a state that's far more red tape than we are red carpet, and that shows in the demographic trends in the state.

[00:04:11]>> Yeah, one data point that I put in that column that I mentioned earlier is that we have not been at replacement fertility rate in Wisconsin since 1974.

[00:04:21]So, obviously, that's a real problem, and we need our tax environment, and we need other metrics to lure people in, not chase them away, and I think that we're doing the opposite right now. Uh talk a little bit about where we're at as far as education attainment. We've That obviously plays into this that that not only do we not have enough workers, we we want to make sure that the pipeline that we have are ready for whatever's next, whether that's job, college, technical college, uh military, or or an apprenticeship. Uh how we doing in that that that regard?

[00:04:52]>> Unfortunately, as funding is accelerating rapidly, achievement and outcomes are decelerating and declining over the plat past 25 years, achievement, whether that's third grade reading or math, are both down across the board. It's scandalous. And so, for us, when we look at solutions, we're not anti-K-12 funding, we're pro-targeted funding, whether that's career and technical education counselors, whether that's STEM education, whether that's choice and charter schools. We think that families and parents need to have educational freedom and opportunity, rather than continuing to throw money at a system as the outcomes continue to decline.

[00:05:31]>> And we'll take a deeper dive into some of these metrics uh in each one of these issue areas in subsequent episodes with uh policy directors from WMC who are assigned to those issue areas. But I you alluded to it, and I I think it's important to say for math and reading fourth and eighth grade proficiency for math it's 60.5% below grade level for reading it's even worse 69.0 below grade level and if you can't read you can't learn and of course we're also STEM is very important we're manufacturing state you need to know math.

[00:06:03]>> And think about that this I mean as you know Kurt I have a fifth grader and a third grader this is personal. These are formative years and if you can't read and you can't do math and yet property taxes are on autopilot for 400 years and we're still not educating students at the level that parents and families expect and yet districts continue to ask for increased funding it's unsustainable and beyond that it's just crazy. So in the report as I mentioned we get to solutions career and technical education counselors STEM education choice and charter schools educational competition.

[00:06:38]>> On the regulatory front we're the 13th most regulated state in the country which is another metric that we don't like very much 165,000 regulations in the state of Wisconsin making it very difficult for businesses to deal with that red tape. You mentioned red tape this is really the the the the the the crux of red tape.

[00:06:57]>> So Palmer Lucky the founder of Anduril Industries a year ago he announced a billion dollar capital investment in the state of Ohio and when they asked Palmer why did you choose Ohio he said there's two types of states some states pull you in and speed you up some states push you away and slow you down.

[00:07:16]When we're the 13th most regulated state in the country with 165,000 regulations are we a state that pulls you in or that pushes you away?

[00:07:25]>> And let's not forget that that's basically another tax because it's got an expense it's a cost of doing business it it you know the permitting timelines are are extended out it makes it uncertainty all the things that businesses don't like A issue area that we talk about at a very high level is health care costs where the highest medical costs for workers compensation in the country, fourth highest hospital prices. And that's a real problem. We're seeing that on our economic surveys. That is now surpassed taxes as the number one challenge facing the state of Wisconsin.

[00:07:57]>> Well, speaking of expenses, where else in your budget in your business do you have double-digit year-over-year expense and cost increases without any type of transparency, virtually no accountability, and so the health care cost has just become another hindrance to the cost of doing business in the state. And in the report, Kurt, as you know, we outline the need for price transparency, the need for a workers compensation fee schedule, and the need for sunshine and consumer-driven choices that employers can own their health care cost and spend.

[00:08:28]>> You know, what I wrote in the column that I I mentioned earlier, Wisconsinites are competitive. We expect our state to be competitive. We we want our sports teams to be competitive. We want to be a leader on education, on health care. And we have by and large pretty good health care in the state.

[00:08:44]The problem is the cost, and that's a real challenge for us. So, Wade, thanks for joining us. We will take a deeper dive on some of these [music] issues in subsequent episodes as I mentioned earlier. Thank you for joining us, and we'll see you next time [music] for the competitiveness report.