Brian Dake

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced new masking guidelines Thursday that carry welcome words: Fully vaccinated Americans, for the most part, no longer need to wear masks indoors.

Support for small businesses, restaurants and bars will remain a priority for federal COVID-19 stimulus money in Wisconsin despite a $700 million decline in anticipated aid, Gov. Tony Evers said Wednesday.

The U.S. Department of Treasury announced Monday that Wisconsin will receive $2.5 billion in aid under the latest federal coronavirus bill — $700 million less than Congressional Research Service estimated the state would receive when the bill passed. The department also said it plans to disburse money to some states, including Wisconsin, in two payments staggered 12 months apart, rather than a lump sum. States set to receive staggered payments saw lower unemployment rates increases during the pandemic.

Evers, who controls how federal money directed to the state is spent, had already announced plans to spend $2.5 billion on economic development aid, $500 million on continued pandemic response and $200 million on infrastructure, including statewide broadband expansion.

In his initial plan, Evers said $600 million would be directed to small businesses, including the continuation of a grant program funded by previous federal coronavirus response bills. According to the state Department of Administration, about 53,000 small businesses statewide have already received about $125 million through a state recovery program funded by the first federal coronavirus aid bill and second federal COVID-19 bill, which passed in December.  

A growing number of Republican governors will end state participation in pandemic-era federal unemployment programs amid concerns over a nationwide labor shortage.

The Biden administration extended the federal unemployment benefits to an additional $300 per week through Sept. 6, an effort to ease the transition as the economy slowly reopens.

In early May, Gov. Greg Gianforte (R-MT) made Montana the first state to announce their withdrawal from the program, saying the extra federal unemployment benefits were “doing more harm than good” and preventing potential employees from returning to work. Beginning June 27, unemployed workers in the state will no longer receive the $300 in weekly extra benefits. Instead, the state will launch a new program incentivizing unemployed workers who return to work by giving them a one-time $1,200 bonus after they have completed four weeks in their new jobs.

Days after Gianforte’s announcement, South Carolina’s Republican Gov. Henry McMaster said the state would make a similar move to leave the federal unemployment programs, citing an “unprecedented” workforce shortage across the state. The state will opt out of the coronavirus pandemic assistance programs beginning June 30.

A startlingly weak jobs report for April, which was released last Friday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, only served to buoy these concerns.  The jobs report fell far short of the expectations of economists, many of whom predicted the country would add as many as 1 million jobs. But the economy added only 266,000 jobs last month, despite reporting an increase of 916,000 in March and 468,000 in February.

Hours after the report was released, Arkansas’ Republican Gov. Asa Hutchinson directed the Division of Workforce Services to end the state’s participation in the enhanced unemployment benefits program after June 26.

Just this week, the GOP governors of Alabama, Iowa, Mississippi and Missouri announced they would similarly end their states’ participation in the program, all citing concerns over labor shortages.

President Biden announced Monday that his administration would affirm that workers cannot turn down a “suitable” job they are offered and continue to take federal unemployment benefits.

The Labor Department is expected to send a letter to states this week to “reaffirm that individuals receiving UI may not continue to receive benefits if they turn down a suitable job due to a general, non-specific concern about COVID-19,” the White House said in a release.

Workers are exempt from the policy if they are unable to take the job due to child care responsibilities or the worksite is not complying with federal or state health guidelines.

Biden is also directing Labor Secretary Marty Walsh to work with states to reinstate work search requirements for those receiving unemployment insurance if it is healthy and safe, the White House said.

A key state lawmaker is leading an effort to reinstate a rule by the end of May that will require the unemployed to look for work to qualify for benefits.

State officials suspended the rule requiring work searches last year because of the coronavirus pandemic and the unprecedented number of unemployment claims it spawned.

The rule on work searches is slated to go back into effect July 10, but Republican Sen. Steve Nass of Whitewater said Friday he is spearheading a plan to reinstate it by the end of May, about six weeks early.

Nass is a co-chairman of the Joint Committee for the Review of Administrative Rules, which has the power to change the rule on work searches.

“We need every able-bodied person to re-enter Wisconsin’s workforce to rebuild our economy. In the current situation, nearly every person on (unemployment insurance) should be able to find employment in a short period time if required to seek new work,” Nass said in a statement.

Once the rule is changed, the unemployed will have to perform four activities related to searching for work each week to obtain their benefits — as was the case before the pandemic.

The state Legislature’s powerful budget-writing committee began its work Thursday on the next two-year spending plan by removing hundreds of proposals from Gov. Tony Evers.

The vote by Republican lawmakers to remove nearly 400 measures proposed by the Democratic governor eliminates more than $3 billion in revenue sources proposed in his plan. The Republican-controlled committee will instead work from the state’s current budget, which was largely written by GOP lawmakers in 2019 and modified by Evers through vetoes.

The committee will spend the next several weeks balancing the state’s two-year spending plan, which leaders say they will do without raising taxes.

“We have a large surplus we can use that to invest in priorities,” Joint Finance Committee co-chairman Mark Born, R-Beaver Dam, said. “And we can return some of the money to the taxpayers.”

The Republicans’ plan also removes from the budget tax increases and tax breaks that Evers had recommended.

Evers wanted to scale back a policy that exempts manufacturers from income taxes, keeping it in place only for small operations. He also proposed increased taxes on capital gains.

Evers wanted to let municipalities and counties raise the sales tax by 0.5% in their areas if approved by voters.

Among the measures to be cut from Evers’ budget were:

• Plans to legalize medical and recreational marijuana that would bring in $165 million a year in marijuana taxes.
• Raising the minimum wage from $7.25 an hour to $8.60 this year and $10.15 in 2024.
• Repealing Act 10, the 2011 law that greatly restricted collective bargaining for most public workers.
• Ending “dark store” policies for property assessments. Municipal officials have long complained that successful big box stores have been able to lower their assessments — and thus their property tax bills — by comparing their stores to shuttered retailers with low values.

The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) has stopped accepting new Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) applications from most lenders almost a full month before the $292 billion program’s application deadline.

The SBA informed lenders Tuesday afternoon that the PPP general fund was out of money and that the only remaining funds available for new applications are $8 billion set aside for community financial institutions (CFIs), which typically work with businesses in underserved communities. The agency also has set aside $6 billion for PPP applications still in review status or needing more information due to error codes.

Congress in late March extended the PPP application deadline two months to May 31, in part to give the SBA and lenders time to resolve error codes that were holding up nearly 200,000 applications in the SBA’s PPP platform. The unresolved error codes were related to validation checks instituted by the SBA to help prevent fraudulent applications from being funded.

The PPP Extension Act of 2021, P.L. 117-6, did not include any additional funding for the current round of the PPP, which Congress provided with more than $290 billion to make forgivable loans to small businesses and not-for-profits suffering economic loss related to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The SBA reported Monday that it had approved more than 5.6 million PPP loans totaling more than $258 billion from the program’s reopening on Jan. 11 through May 2. First-draw PPP loans accounted for $57.3 billion, and second-draw loans totaled nearly $201 billion.

Today, Governor Tony Evers announced three appointments to six-year terms on the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection (DATCP) Board, effective May 1, 2021. Two of the appointees are current members of the board, and one is a new appointee.

“With a $104.8 billion economic impact in Wisconsin, we all know how important agriculture is to our state’s economic success,” said Governor Evers. “I’m proud to appoint these knowledgeable leaders to the team that guides the important work DATCP does in every corner of our state, every day.”

Doug Rebout is a partner in Roger Rebout & Sons Farms near Janesville. The farm includes over 4,200 acres of cropland, 280 Holstein and crossbred steers, and 400 custom-raised heifers. Rebout is actively engaged in public and community service as a member of the Wisconsin Corn Growers Association Board of Directors and the Governor’s Task Force on Climate Change. Rebout was first appointed to the DATCP Board in July 2020.

Paul Palmby has served as President and CEO at Seneca Foods Corporation since September of 2020 having been Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer since 2005. In his 34 years with Seneca he has served in various management roles in the company starting in the agricultural department and progressing through operations to his current role. Paul has served on the Board of Directors of the Midwest Food Processors Association and the Wisconsin FFA Foundation, among others. He served on USDA’s Fruit and Vegetable Industry Advisory Committee from 2002-2006 and 2018 to present. He currently serves on the Board of Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce.

Dr. Clare Hintz runs Elsewhere Farm, a production permaculture farm near the south shore of Lake Superior in Herbster, Wisconsin. The solar-powered farm features perennial fruits and nuts interplanted on five acres, intensive market gardens, and rare-breed pigs and chickens: most marketed through winter and summer CSAs. She is also the editor of the Journal of Sustainability Education. Dr. Hintz holds a bachelor’s degree in biology and writing, a master’s in sustainable systems, and a Ph.D. in sustainability education with a focus on regenerative agriculture. She succeeds Kurt Hallstrand as a member of the DATCP Board.

Republican lawmakers plan to remove hundreds of proposals from Gov. Tony Evers’ state budget next week, from an expansion of Medicaid to the legalization of marijuana to the partial restoration of public sector union bargaining rights.

The move is the first step — and a big one — toward rewriting the budget from the ground up, something GOP leaders have been hinting at since the Governor  introduced his budget in February.

While many of the biggest financial decisions are yet to be resolved, the plan Republicans on the Legislature’s budget committee hope to pass Thursday will remove hundreds of Evers priorities from the budget. Many of those items will substantially reduce the amount of money lawmakers have to spend in the budget for the next two years.

For example, the expansion of Medicaid would bring the state an influx of $1.6 billion in federal funding. And the legalization of recreational marijuana was projected to generate $165 million.

While hardly unexpected, other sources of new revenue would also be wiped out. They include Evers’ proposal to reduce a tax break for capital gains, which was projected to generate an estimated $350 million. They also include his plan to scale back a tax break for manufacturers, which would generate an estimated $488 million.

The list of items up for removal also includes a wide array of policy ideas, from Evers’ call for automatic voter registration to a proposal for nonpartisan redistricting. Evers’ plan to raise the minimum wage would also be gone.

While the proposals could in theory be restored later in the budget-writing process, many if not most will face an uphill battle with Republicans who followed a similar process two years ago.

Help for local restaurants impacted by COVID-19 opens Monday. The Restaurant Revitalization Fund is part of the American Rescue Plan and aims to keep the doors open for struggling businesses.

Restaurants can get up to $5 million per physical location with a limit of $10 million total per business. Applications for less than $1,000 are not accepted.

Applications open at noon for restaurants looking for relief.

The Small Business Administration says businesses do not have to pay the money back. That’s as long as it’s used for eligible purposes by March 11, 2023.

The SBA says restaurants can use the money for several different business needs including payroll costs, except sick leave, utility and maintenance, outdoor seating construction, mortgage obligations, and rent as long as it’s not pre-paid.

Businesses can register now for the application portal. You can submit applications starting at noon Monday. You can find that here.

According to the SBA, the first 21 days will be a priority period for groups including small businesses that are at least 50% owned by one or more people who are:

• women
• veterans
• socially and economically disadvantaged

Once the priority period ends, the SBA says it’ll process qualifying applicants until the funds run out.