Job Creation Is In Focus At Northern Wisconsin Economic Summit

​Business leaders and public officials are meeting this week in northern Wisconsin to talk about job creation.

The event, called the Governor’s Northern Wisconsin Economic Development Summit, kicks off on Tuesday in Trego and will cover a range of issues, from broadband coverage to business incentives.

Economic leaders in northern Wisconsin say growing existing businesses is crucial. They say the region has a hard time attracting large companies in part because it lacks adequate rail access and major highways.

Dale Kupczyk, the executive director of the Ashland Area Economic Development Corporation, said that he’d like the state to offer low-interest loans instead of tax credits to help start-ups.

“A lot of start-up companies don’t make a profit and can’t use the tax credits. Yes, they could get them and then sell them, but that takes time, energy and money,” he said.

Iron County Development Zone Coordinator Kelly Klein agrees that loans help, but said economic developers have to weigh the risks.

“Otherwise, the loan program goes away. You’ve got to make sure that the borrower is going to be able to pay it back,” she said.

Washburn County Economic Development Corporation director Mike Spafford said that he’d like more help for small businesses, and said that the Wisconsin Economic Development Corp. — the state’s public-private job-creating agency — should gear programs toward rural areas.

“There aren’t really loan programs available — funding available — to help those types of businesses,” he said.

Klein said that he’d like the agency to review assistance it provides to businesses, “and maybe make some changes down the road here where a five- or a 10-person company can get some assistance if they want to expand with new machinery or something like that,” he said.

​WEDC, however, has said it will phase out its loan program. The agency awarded millions in loans to companies without formal reviews, some of which haven’t been repaid.

A WEDC spokesman said the agency will be highlighting work the state has been doing in northern Wisconsin through development grants and its Main Street Program among others. The agency says it has awarded around $245 million in financing that has resulted in the creation of roughly 7,500 jobs and retention of more than 19,000 across the state.