MADISON – The Republican-controlled Assembly passed a Republican bill on June 24 that aims to recruit out-of-state households to move to Wisconsin to help address specific workforce shortages without grant funds attached.
The bill, authored by Sen. Patrick Testin, R-Stevens Point, and Rep. David Armstrong, R-Rice Lake, would direct the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation, the agency responsible for economic and workforce development, to establish a program to award grants for talent recruitment programs to incentivize households from outside the state to relocate to Wisconsin.
Here’s what to know about the legislation:
What would the bill do?
Under the bill, WEDC would disburse 50% of the total grant award at the start of the grant contract with the additional 50% awarded after a municipality has successfully met half of its household goal. Up to $500,000 in grant money can be awarded for talent recruitment programming in a single municipality in a single fiscal year.
Any city, village, town, county or Native American tribe or band in Wisconsin or a nonprofit organization with a mission that includes economic development, workforce and talent development or community development could apply to take part in the program.
Households would be eligible for incentives under the program if they reside outside the state at the time of applying and have an individual household income of at least $55,000.
Is the bill paid for?
No, at least not yet.
As written, the bill would require WEDC to pull money out of other programs to fund it.
On the Assembly floor, Armstrong said he submitted five budget motions to the Joint Finance Committee but was told to pass the bill through the Assembly and Senate first.
If funding for the program does not make the final budget, Armstrong said, the bill will be edited to include necessary funds.
Democrats expressed skepticism.
“Republicans have assured us that this funding will at some point just magically appear once we pass legislation, if that’s the case, then this amendment is common sense and is a simple yes,” Rep. Joan Fitzgerald, D-Fort Atkinson, said.
Does Wisconsin have a labor shortage?
The Department of Administration projects that Wisconsin’s population will decrease by almost 200,000 by 2050. An aging population and decreasing fertility rates likely have put an additional strain on the state’s workforce.
“Wisconsin needs to do everything it can to address our workforce shortage and demographic changes, and the Talent Recruitment Program can be a valuable tool in this effort,” Armstrong said at a public hearing on June 10.
In Wisconsin, sectors facing significant labor shortages include health care, manufacturing, agriculture and education.
While manufacturing provides more than 470,000 jobs and brings more than $66 billion into Wisconsin’s economy, the sector continues to decline in the state despite growth nationally.
Workforce retention has remained a top concern for Wisconsin manufacturers who are struggling to find and keep enough qualified workers to meet demand, according to a Wisconsin Manufacturing Report conducted by the Wisconsin Center for Manufacturing and Productivity.
Armstrong said that this bill would help cities recruit households that will help address specific needs within specific communities.
“(Rice Lake) is a manufacturing city. That’s what they need. They need manufacturing. They need engineers. Rice Lake, could use a program like this for it to market to those entities, to those families,” Armstrong said, adding that elsewhere in the state could use the program to recruit workers in other high demand sectors.
In April, the state unemployment rate was 3.3%, 0.9 percentage points below the national rate of 4.2%. The job openings to unemployment ratio in Wisconsin is around 1.56 — meaning there are roughly half as many more job openings as those who are currently unemployed in the state to fill them.
Wisconsin’s workforce participation rate was 65.5% in April, 2.9 percentage points higher than the national rate.
What other cities and states have utilized programs like this?
In states like Indiana and Illinois, MakeMyMove, a marketplace for relocation programs, has helped communities recruit new residents.
MakeMyMove CEO Mike Rutz believes this could work in Wisconsin as well.
“The two things that people are looking for is one, lower cost of living, which you guys have, and two is connection to community,” Rutz said at a June 10 public hearing.
Since its founding in 2017, MakeMyMove has 34 programs set up in Indiana and recruited 2,000 people to move to the state, according to Rutz.
“You can attract remote workers. You can attract local workforce. For local employers, our recommendation is, typically go as broad as you can to get more people,” Rutz said.
This idea isn’t new. Cities such as Tulsa, Oklahoma have had programs and incentives in place to lure individuals to come work in their community since 2018.
From 2020 to 2023, the city saw a migration bump of about 3,000, with Tulsa Remote offering a $10,000 incentive to remote workers willing to move to the city.
Harvard Business School management professor Prithwiraj Choudhury found that not only have participants in the program saved money, but they also contribute to the economic wellbeing of the Tulsa community.
Between 2018 and 2021, Tulsa brought in $14.9 million in annual tax income revenue and $5.8 million in sales taxes from migrant knowledge workers.
Has something like this been done before in Wisconsin?
In 2018, Wisconsin launched a $1 million marketing effort to lure young Chicagoans to the state.
The ads, put out by the WEDC, targeted young professionals on social media platforms. Physical posters were also plastered inside Chicago’s “L” trains and hung up around downtown Chicago.
While the ad campaign drew criticism from some for focusing on the negative of living in Chicago rather than the positive of living in Wisconsin, it did drive interest in living and working in the state, with the site receiving more than 72,000 visits in the first six weeks of the campaign.
More recently, Evers and the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development launched a Federal Worker Portal in March to provide resources to fired federal employees seeking employment opportunities in Wisconsin.
The campaign aimed to recruit federal workers or other displaced professionals to fill roles in high demand sectors such as health care, IT, law enforcement and engineering.
“Here in Wisconsin, hard work is in our DNA, and anyone who is interested in bringing that same commitment to the job is welcome in our state,” Evers said in a March 27 press release.
Does the bill have support?
Currently, only Republicans have signed onto the bill. It is supported by a number of organizations including the League of Wisconsin Municipalities, Wisconsin Dairy Products Association Inc. and Wisconsin Economic Development Association.
Anna Kleiber can be reached at akleiber@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: What to know about a bill in the Legislature that seeks to recruit workers to the state
Reporting by Anna Kleiber, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
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