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Great news! Wisconsin's present
unemployment rate of just 2.9 percent is the lowest it has ever
been! In addition, more people (3,068,200 people, to be precise)
are actually employed today in Wisconsin than ever before.
That's why we've bet big on Wisconsin's
workforce -- because our economy needs workers more badly than ever
before! There are more actual dollars going into K-12 classrooms
this year than ever before. University of Wisconsin tuition has
been frozen for six straight years so that college is more affordable
for students and families; with record-low unemployment, more of our
graduates who grew up here in Wisconsin and want to stay here are able
to pursue careers here. We're now a top-10 state in hiring
employees with disabilities. We've set a new standard for welfare
programs that result in more people regaining the dignity of work.
We're recruiting more veterans to Wisconsin. We've recently
doubled the availability of youth apprenticeships. And the list
goes on.
Wisconsin is working. Our
people are working like never before. This is the direction we
want to go!
As always, I encourage you to follow
my updates on
social media or contact
my office directly with your questions. Best wishes on your weekend!
Giving
You Your Money Back!
You've read in my
previous newsletters that your state government is already running a
significant surplus in our budget this year. With the economy running
at full steam and a record-high number of people in our workforce, sales tax
and income tax collections are higher than anticipated! That's YOUR
money. I am certain that you know better than the government how to
spend it wisely. So I voted this week to give it back to you!
If you have children at home, watch your
mail! The Department of Revenue (DOR) will contact you early this
summer with instructions for claiming your
$100 refund per child.
(I know, I know... I often use this newsletter to warn you of new consumer
scams. But this is no scam; DOR will use information from your 2017
income tax return to determine your eligibility for the refund.) You
will receive your refund in time for back-to-school shopping in August!
And, whether you have children at home or
not, retailers everywhere in Wisconsin will charge
no sales tax
during the first weekend in August on qualifying clothing, electronics and
many other items. The savings can really add up if you think ahead...
so start planning! Thinking about investing, say, $700 in a new home
computer and accessories? You'll save almost $40 in sales tax.
Need a new set of clothes that totals $200? That's another $11 in
sales tax savings. You get the idea. (Although there will be a
limit on how expensive each item may be to qualify for the tax
holiday -- for example, a computer must cost less than $750 to be nontaxable
-- there is no limit on how many items may be purchased tax-free.)
Both houses of the state legislature have now
voted passage of this bill; it's headed soon to Governor Scott Walker for
signature into law!
New
Education Opportunities
Demand is spiking across many industries for
employees skilled in the use of geographic information systems (GIS).
Do you work, or want to work, in health care? Or as a firefighter?
Or a conservationist, an urban planner, a software/app developer, or even a
farmer? New opportunities abound... and the University of
Wisconsin-Madison is offering
new educational programs to prepare you!
Building on the success of its existing
Online
Master of Science in Cartography and GIS, UW-Madison will offer three
new options in Fall 2018 designed for people of any experience level.
A new 12-credit online basic certificate program will prepare you for an
entry-level GIS job (even if you have no background in GIS, mapmaking or
coding) in a year or less. A similar but more advanced capstone
certificate will also be available for those who have some experience
already. And a new accelerated master's degree program (this one
happens in-person, on campus) will allow a student to move through
introductory work into advanced work and be ready to enter high-level jobs
in just one year (instead of the two years often required for master's
programs).
I think it's really exciting that our
university is helping you choose exactly what educational format best suits
your own career goals -- and they promise to let you transfer credits from
the more basic certificate programs toward the master's programs if you
later decide to continue your work!
Even if a career in GIS systems isn't for
you, the UW System's eCampus now
features more than 150 online degrees and certificates. Or maybe our
local Lakeshore Technical College offers
something else that is up your alley. With unemployment at an all-time
record low, Wisconsin businesses are looking harder than ever before for
skilled employees. They need you!
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