Economic Summit II - Remarks and Speeches

Wisconsin's Economy at the Crossroads:
Building Higher Paying Jobs for the Future

November 26-27, 2001
Midwest Express Center, Milwaukee

A Tale of Two Economies
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Cvala
November 27, 2001

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us …" Charles Dickens A Tale of Two Cities

Wisconsin's economy finds itself in a situation much like that described in the opening lines of the Dicken's classic A Tale of Two Cities. We literally have in our state the tale of two economies.

A nationwide economic slowdown, now declared recession has hurt our state and the traditional manufacturing bedrock of our economy. And yet Wisconsin is in the unique position of being poised to lead the nation and the world in the emerging, high growth field of biotechnology research and production.

The economic uncertainty facing our state presents substantial challenges for business, citizens and policymakers but also presents us with the opportunity to reshape our economy for years to come. Everyone acknowledges that our economy will rebound, recent forecasts indicate that the recovery will occur sooner rather than later. The opportunity and the challenge is to ensure that Wisconsin, our economy and our workforce is well positioned to succeed when that occurs

At this time businesses are planning their future growth and talented, skilled people left out of work in the wake of the dot-com "crash" are looking for alternatives. Wisconsin is in a position to offer these alternatives and grow our economy - creating good-paying jobs in our state, raising incomes, reversing brain drain, bringing additional federal resources back to Wisconsin and building ourselves into a national economic leader.

Now is the time for us to act aggressively so that we lead the nation out of the economic doldrums. We should push the recovery and control our own destiny, not be pulled along by forces outside of our control

The last economic summit began the process of looking strategically at our economy and where we want to go as a state, and it was successful in that endeavor. But now it is time to act.

Businesses, governments and citizens must work together to further our shared goal of making Wisconsin an even better place to live, work and raise a family. And to this end Senate Democrats and the Senate have been moving forward.

As part of our version of the biennial budget we passed the UW economic stimulus plan including the Madison Initiative and Milwaukee Idea. Sixty-two leaders of some of the largest and most influential companies in this state wrote to the legislature calling for us to take this action because they, like Senate Democrats, realize our world class UW System is a critical component of our economy

We also, on a bipartisan basis, acted to pass the Midwest Express tax break to support our transportation infrastructure.

In conference committee negotiations Senate Democrats stopped a proposal to ban embryonic stem cell research in Wisconsin, research that has brought national acclaim and recognition to not only the researchers like Professor Thomson but our University of Wisconsin.

And finally, as part of the budget, we authorized resources for the Biostar project to help UW-Madison continue to be an engine of economic growth and bring federal research dollars back to Wisconsin.

We continue to look to build the future of our state's economy.

Earlier this month the Senate passed SJR 46 commending Professor James Thomson and his research team for their groundbreaking research on embryonic stem cells, the work of the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation, and asking the federal government to declare UW-Madison a National Center of Excellence for Embryonic Stem Cell Research.

The Senate has also acted to pass a biotechnology economic stimulus package that would allow accelerated development of the Biostar project, make up to $50 million in additional venture capital available to develop our biotechnology industry and the good paying jobs it creates, and implement a branding campaign to aggressively promote Wisconsin's leadership in the field of biotechnology and recruit new business to our state.

In a white paper on the branding of Wisconsin prepared for the last economic summit Marsha Lindsay quoted management consultant Tom Peters who said, "In an increasingly crowded marketplace, fools will try to compete on price. Winners will find a way to create lasting value in the customers mind." We should not miss out on the millions of dollars in free advertising our state and UW-Madison received when Professor James Thomson was featured on the cover of Time Magazine for his groundbreaking research on embryonic stem cells. We must do more to capitalize on the opportunity we have and associate lasting value with the brand we call Wisconsin

For example, we should move to capitalize on our biotechnology industry and world class computer science program at the UW to seek to develop the bio-informatics industry around our existing biotech clusters. This industry specializes in using computer technology to analyze the information generated through biotech research. What an opportunity to take advantage of the dot-com industry downsizing. We would create high paying jobs that would keep our graduates here bring others back to Wisconsin and produce brain gain instead of brain drain.

Other opportunities are also before us. The new CEO of General Electric worked at GE Medical Systems based right here in the Milwaukee metro area. He knows what Wisconsin has to offer and we should aggressively reach out to GE and work to create a research partnership using the resources of the Milwaukee metro area in conjunction with the innovative work occurring at GE Medical Systems.

While some see only the worst of times, the season of darkness, the winter of despair I see on the horizon the best of times, the spring of hope, the season of light. We have before us a world of opportunity if only we have the vision and the commitment to move forward.