Marketplace Today Blog

By Kathleen Gallagher
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

The budget that Gov. Jim Doyle signed into law Monday is rife with measures to spur more activity in Wisconsin’s tech-based economy, the Wisconsin Technology Council said.

Major provisions targeting high-growth companies and entrepreneurs include: an exemption effective Jan. 1, 2012, to the sales and use tax for machinery and other tangible personal property used for qualified manufacturing or biotech research; tax credits for businesses that increase research and development by more than 125 percent; a $2 million investment in the Wisconsin Genomics Initiative; and $8.2 million of biotech, nanotech and information technologies research funding at the Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery.

The tech council outlined more growth-friendly provisions in a news release and pointed to white papers it wrote detailing many of its recommendations.

The state budget closes a record $6.6 billion shortfall over two years by raising $2.1 billion in taxes and fees, spending federal economic stimulus money, cutting state agency spending and reducing aid to local governments and schools.