Only in the world of Wisconsin business could you be enthusiastic about your prospects in one instant, and then in the next have your prospects come crashing down like a fallen soufflé.
Case in point, one of the biggest products to come out of Wisconsin besides beer: cranberries.
Earlier this week, the Milwaukee Journal/Sentinel first tantalized us with the better than good news:
"Two of the largest buyers of Wisconsin cranberries are on a mission to persuade growers to increase their output, with the hope of adding $75 million annually to the state economy and creating 1,115 jobs.”
Tremendous, right?
Then came the dose of reality.
“But in order to make that happen, the presidents of Ocean Spray Cranberries Inc. and Cliffstar Corp. say the state needs to cooperate in speeding up the permit process to turn more acreage into cranberry bogs.”
We have heard that story time and time again: Wisconsin bureaucracy standing directly in the way of Wisconsin success.
“They are looking for a nearly 30% boost in acres planted —from the current 18,000 to 23,000. If they can’t get the additional 5,000 acres in Wisconsin, the cranberry industry may have to turn to Canada, they say. “
Somewhere in Madison, a taxpayer-funded bureaucrat, armed with visor, a pocket protector, and a book of statutes as thick as the Manhattan phone pages is standing with arms folded shaking his fool head saying “no, no, no, no, no.”
He might as well be saying, “I don’t care. Screw you, Wisconsin. Rules are rules. Our state economy be damned.”
Let’s cut to the chase. Wisconsin’s heavy-handed regulations are preventing Wisconsin business from doing business and prospering, to the point that we have to go internationally to get the job done instead of utilizing our own economic resources to prosper.
The villain? Take a guess: the Gestapo-like Department of Natural Resources, the state agency that isn’t happy unless it’s ruining someone’s life.
Pretty darned stupid, isn’t it? We are our own worst enemy.
We over-license, over-permit, over-regulate, over-dictate in this state. We kill business in this state by inviting firms and companies to pack up and leave for other states with climates that are fare more accepting and friendly to places that want to set up shop and create jobs and build the economy.
Why wouldn’t we bend over backwards to help the cranberry industry? Visualize a bureaucrat with a pocket protector, etc.
We need to change our laws that will make it more attractive for business to come here and stay here. If not, be prepared for more businesses to leave.
