Why Does Wisconsin Lose Businesses- Two Views

One of the great things about the internet is how it can facilitate connections that would otherwise never be made. I ran across one of these instances tonight.

First there was Capper's blog in my reader noting another business is leaving Wisconsin. The reason, according to Capper, was (all together now) Scott Walker. Capper writes:

And this is just another one of the myriad of ways Walker has failed as county executive. If he cannot make Milwaukee County appealing to businesses, there is no reason to believe he could do better on the state level.

As soon as I had read this, I checked my facebook feed and found a blog post entitled Why Do Companies Leave Wisconsin and the USA written by Derek Ellerman and offering this analysis:

The reason companies leave Wisconsin, or the USA for that matter, is simple. The relatively larger companies leave because the federal tax rate is the second highest on planet earth....

Add any and all additional taxes that the wonderful state of Wisconsin adds to this egregious federal level, and you understand why companies leave our state. They pay fewer taxes somewhere else. Not only is this good for the company, it is good for all their consumers. Their consumers can now pay a lower price for their product. This puts to rest the ‘greedy capitalist’ argument. Not only is the company better off having left the Soviet Sector, but that company’s consumers also benefit.

For some reason, Ellerman never blames Scott Walker personally for destroying the business climate in Wisconsin the way that Capper does. The funny thing is that Ellerman's blog appears on the site of Walker's opponent for the Republican gubernatorial nomination, Mark Neumann.

Call me crazy, but I am deeply skeptical that a single politician can destroy the economic climate of a county or a state. This kind of damage stems from a pattern of mismanagement that takes place over years and often involves members of both major parties. It remains to be seen if any of the candidates for governor are up to the task of undoing this damage and restoring Wisconsin to fiscal health.