Small Business Support

Democratic Minority Leader Rep. Greta Neubauer says she’s having conversations with Gov. Tony Evers and Attorney General Josh Kaul about ways to stand in front of mass deportations promised by President-elect Donald Trump. “We are having conversations with Assembly Democrats, in our local communities, and of course with the governor and the attorney general and trying to figure out what is available to us, what levers we have to pull to try to protect our friends and neighbors,” Neubauer said on WISN’s ‘UPFRONT’ which is produced in partnership with WisPolitics.com. “We’re all very concerned, both from a moral perspective, I think it’s wrong to remove people who have lived and contributed to our communities for so long.”Neubauer said that includes people who are in Wisconsin illegally.”Yes, I think there’s a nuanced conversation,” she said. “But I have many people in my community who have been here for many years, whose kids go to school with our kids, who are contributing members of our communities. We are looking into what options are available to keep those folks in our communities.” Neubauer said she has met with Republican leaders since November’s election when Democrats picked up 10 seats in the Assembly, reducing the GOP majority to 54-45.”So we’re just getting started,” she said. “We’re looking to next year and talking about sharing our priorities, seeing if there’s common ground and figuring out how we can best work together. For the past decade, Assembly Democrats really have been on defense. We’ve been trying to fight off a Republican supermajority. We have been upholding the governor’s veto. Our posture has changed, right? We have a much narrower majority, and we’re really hoping to use that to governor this year.” Neubauer didn’t rule out working with Republicans on a tax cut bill but said her caucus’ priorities will be K-12 education and “lowering costs for working families.” “Many of our communities across the state have gone to referendum, had to raise their own property taxes to cover needed investments in our schools,” Neubauer said. “Our kids deserve better, and the GOP-led Legislature just has not been keeping up our end of the bargain.” Former GOP Gov. Scott McCallum, a senior advisor to a group tasked with pushing for ‘fair, safe and secure elections,’ is blasting Attorney General Josh Kaul and the DOJ’s charges targeting former Trump allies, including Jim Troupis. “I care about democracy,” McCallum said. “And democracy, whether it’s Republican or Democrat, means standing up for institutions, and what we’re seeing is a clear abuse of power. If we can do this to people in important positions, a former judge in this case, this can occur to anybody in society.” Troupis, President-elect Trump’s former attorney and a former Dane County Judge, made his initial court appearance last week on 11 felony charges, accused in a plot to overturn the results of the 2020 election. “It was until the court proceedings were finished,” McCallum said, referring to the meeting of Republican electors. “Keep in mind this came within one vote. There was an appeal process, and I know Judge Troupis is representing his client, and I believe it came out in the Wall Street Journal that he advised the president to drop it, but his client said to proceed with the appeal. So they needed this slate to be able to proceed with the appeal.” A Madison-area small business owner says he’s stockpiled a one-year supply of products from China in anticipation of new tariffs imposed by Trump. “As soon as it became clear to me Trump was going to win, I knew that tariffs were on the table, a tariff up to 60% would have a huge impact on business, so I started messaging my suppliers on election night, putting in a pretty big order,” Jason Junod said, the founder and owner of Bare Botanics in Middleton. Junod said he’s been unable to find a supplier for brushes for his skincare company, a key product that accompanies every other produce made in his warehouse in Wisconsin. “I think tariffs have a place in the economy,” he said. “I think there have been success stories of tariffs protecting certain businesses and industries, but you have to have that industry set up in America first to protect it.”Junod anticipates he will save tens of thousands of dollars if the new tariffs are imposed. “If I can buy one year’s worth of inventory, it gives us a little bit of a reprieve, it gives customers a little bit of a reprieve,” he said. “I’m OK sharing this story to the extent it’s focused on policy and not necessarily party. I think this could have been a policy under either party, and it happens to be under the Republican party, and that happens to be the incoming administration, and as a small business owner, I have to stick to the facts and look ahead to what’s coming.”Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley delivered the commencement address at UW-Milwaukee Sunday but also walked across the stage as a graduate himself after completing his degree. “I ended up failing two classes, and quite frankly, the UW System sent me a letter saying you cannot come back,” Crowley said, detailing his journey. “You cannot come back until you pay for these classes, and if you do come back, you’re going to have to pay upfront for classes to make sure that you’re dedicated. And so I ended up paying those dollars back as a staffer working in the state Senate.””When I became county executive, one of the first articles that I read was about me being the third county executive without having a college degree,” Crowley added. “And not necessarily looking at it as they were coming down after me, but you know for me, that felt like I was seeing a glass ceiling being built over my head, and one that I was placing over my head as well. And so as time went on as county executive during the pandemic, I decided that it was just time.” Crowley said most students initially didn’t know who he was in classes and walking the halls of UW-Milwaukee.”Many of them started to open up,” he said. “But I also think that because of that connection, because I was approaching this as a student, I didn’t get any handouts, I didn’t get any help because I’m county executive, no my staff didn’t do my homework, I think many of these students were able to see me as a normal person, and I think that helped build an even greater connection to the community but also to government here locally.” Crowley said his address would focus on what students in this class had to overcome, beginning college during the pandemic. “We need to make sure that we respect everybody,” Crowley said. “Not everybody is ripe and ready to go to college, but they may be ripe and ready to be a police officer, to be a firefighter, to be a tradesman or woman. And so it’s important that we really talk about our duty and what responsibilities we have as individuals who are not only finishing our college experience, but those who have the opportunity to encourage others to do the same as well.”