The Wisconsin Policy Research Institute

Let's Keep Wisconsin Workers Working

By George Lightbourn

There is a simple way to keep thousands of Wisconsin men and women working without adding a dime to the state budget.

These are dark times for many businesses with the construction industry particularly hard hit. Tight credit and cautious developers have combined to halt numerous private building projects. More than five thousand workers have been sent home to wait until things improve. For them, this promises to be an anxious holiday season.

At the same time that Wisconsin’s construction industry is suffering, state government continues to borrow hundreds of millions of dollars to buy land. This year alone the Governor has given the DNR the green light to borrow $60 million for land buys under the Stewardship program. Created in 1989, the Stewardship program preserves millions of acres of environmentally sensitive lands. DNR now owns 1.4 million acres, or 4%, of all the land in Wisconsin.

Buying and preserving land, while perhaps a worthwhile goal, does not put a single person to work. Is land banking something we have the luxury to continue while so many Wisconsin families are hurting?

Let’s suspend bonding to buy land. Let’ use that money to build things. Let’s eat into the backlog of infrastructure projects: sewerage treatment plants, roads, bridges and buildings.

Doing this will keep skilled, well paid workers working; truck drivers, cement finishers, glazers, electricians, etc. And the benefits will go well beyond these people. Getting these people working will send waves throughout the economy. What economists refer to as the multiplier effect, the rest of us call buying groceries, shopping for Christmas and paying taxes. In stark contrast, there is no multiplier from buying land and taking it off of the tax rolls.

Let’s not wait, let’s do it now. The Governor could convene the Legislature before Thanksgiving. If the DNR were directed to stop buying land today, we could get $20 million working this winter. Or, better yet, they could move the bonding scheduled for the next budget forward to get $166 million working. This wouldn’t mean spending any more money, just spending it differently. This effort needs the same zeal and determination that Governor Doyle and Congressman Ryan showed in trying to keep the Janesville GM plant operating.

Let’s not limit this effort to construction projects on state government’s to-do list. Counties and local governments have long lists of important infrastructure projects that need just as much attention. Let’s include them in this initiative to get construction workers back on the job throughout Wisconsin.

And finally, let’s commit to restoring the Stewardship program when our economy returns to the upswing. But until then, let’s use a little common sense to get our workers back on job sites throughout Wisconsin.

-November 17, 2008

Let's Keep Wisconsin Workers Working

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