Julie Lassa: Senator Lassa's Wisconsin C.O.R.E. Jobs Act & Career Conversations Bill Signed Into Law

Wisconsin State Senate Serving Wood, Portage, Adams
24th Senate District Waushara, Marathon & Marquette
JULIE LASSA
STATE SENATOR
For Immediate Release 5/10/2010 Contact: Sen. Lassa (608) 266-3123
Senator Lassa’s Wisconsin C.O.R.E. Jobs Act &

Career Conversations Bill Signed into Law
C.O.R.E. expands current programs and adds new initiatives to spur job growth
and retention;
Career Conversations links students to potential career opportunities
Green Bay – The most comprehensive jobs package to emerge from the 2009-2010 legislative
session was signed into law today. Governor Doyle signed the Wisconsin C.O.R.E. Jobs Act,
authored by Sen. Julie Lassa (D-Stevens Point), at a ceremony at Enzymatic Therapy in Green
Bay.
“A lot of thought and effort went into crafting this comprehensive job creation legislation,” said
Lassa. “With provisions to retain and grow existing businesses, assistance for entrepreneurs to
create new small businesses and additional resources for worker training, this bill will help our
economy grow and provide good paying jobs for Wisconsin’s hard working men and women ,”
Lassa said.
“C.O.R.E will make it easier to turn new sciences and technologies discovered at our universities
and research institutions into products and services that create new industries or grow existing
ones,” Lassa said. “These programs will, for example, help the groundbreaking research into
nanotechnology, polymers and alternative energy production being done at UW-Stevens Point
translate into new jobs in emerging industries statewide.”
“C.O.R.E. also adds resources to the Wisconsin Development Fund, the state's rapid response
tool to help keep businesses open and attract new ones to our communities. Companies like
ERCO Worldwide in Port Edwards and Corenso International in Wisconsin Rapids have benefited
directly from Development Fund grants, and communities like the City of Marshfield and the
Village of Biron have used grants to improve their economic infrastructure,” she said.
“This bill will also keep factories open by providing incentives to convert them to green energy
manufacturing and production, like the closed or underused paper facilities in Central Wisconsin
that could possibly be utilized to produce biofuels in the future,” Lassa said.
C.O.R.E. stands for Connecting Opportunity, Research and Entrepreneurism. The bill was
structured around three goals: Creating New Jobs and Businesses, Retaining and Building
Existing Wisconsin Businesses, and Educating and Training our Workforce. Provisions in the bill
include:
OFFICE: State Capitol. P.O. Box 7882, Madison, WI 53707-7882 PHONE: (608) 266-3123
TOLL-FREE: 1-800-925-7491 E-MAIL: [email protected] DISTRICT NUMBER: (715) 342-3806
C.O.R.E. Passes Senate, 5/7/2010
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(More)
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Creating New Jobs and Businesses
• Expanding the Accelerate Wisconsin program by adding $3 million more in tax

credits for 2010 to spur investment in Wisconsin companies with the credits
increasing to $20 million a year thereafter. The current amount of tax credits
available each year is $5.5 million.
• Grants to help partner small and mid size businesses with research institutions,
including the University of Wisconsin comprehensive campuses, to commercialize
new technologies faster.
• A micro-loan program to help entrepreneurs start their own small businesses.
• Support for a UW system-wide business plan competition similar to the one at UW-
Madison.
• Funding a regulatory assistance center to provide one-stop help with the state’s
permitting and approval process.
Retaining and Building Existing Businesses
• An additional $1 million for the Wisconsin Development Fund, used to attract and
retain businesses.
• Incentives help companies retool for green energy production or manufacturing.
• Grants to encourage companies to do Farmshoring – a development strategy that
brings good jobs to rural areas of Wisconsin instead of sending these jobs overseas.
• The creation of the Wisconsin Business Intelligence System (WISBIS) to provide
economic modeling data to regional economic development entities.
Educating and Training Our Workforce
• Adding more resources to the popular Advanced Manufacturing Skills Training

program grant created in the economic recovery bill from earlier this year. “These
grants have already been used by more than 100 companies to train over 4,100
workers in new skills to expand businesses, including Ocean Spray in Wood County
and specialty paper manufacturer MaraTech International in Marathon County,”
Lassa said.
• Creation of an employee education investment tax credit. This credit will leverage
new resources for skills training and career education by providing $2 million in
incentives for businesses who pay university or technical college tuition for low-
income employees.
• Increasing the capacity of the CAP Services Skills Enhancement Program, assisting
low-wage earning workers to obtain additional training or education. Workers
completing this program have seen an average annual income increase of $10,000.
Visit www.legis.wisconsin.gov/senate/sdc/CORE/ for more information about the C.O.R.E. Jobs

Act.
Page 4
The governor also today signed Senate Bill 121, authored by Senator Lassa, which establishes a
Career Conversations program. Career Conversations will provide students in grades 7 through
12 with the opportunity to interact via webcams with individuals working in high wage/high
demand jobs in Wisconsin. This program will help students learn about in-demand careers as
well as what education or skills training potential employees need to perform these jobs.
“Career Conversations is a simple way to better inform students, teachers, and parents about
jobs and careers that have a promising future in our state by allowing them to interact with
people who are already employed in that sector,” Lassa said. “It will also help Wisconsin
businesses interact with the state’s future workforce.”
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Wisconsin State Senate Serving Wood, Portage, Adams

24th Senate District Waushara, Marathon & Marquette

For Immediate Release 5/10/2010 Contact: Sen. Lassa (608) 266-3123

Senator Lassa’s Wisconsin C.O.R.E. Jobs Act &

• Expanding the Accelerate Wisconsin program by adding $3 million more in tax

Retaining and Building Existing Businesses

Educating and Training Our Workforce

• Adding more resources to the popular Advanced Manufacturing Skills Training

Visit www.legis.wisconsin.gov/senate/sdc/CORE/ for more information about the C.O.R.E. Jobs

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