Aaron Vehling

State senators are working to keep students in Wisconsin after they graduate with the G.R.O.W. project, which focuses on economic and job growth in Wisconsin.

“We’ve got to bring jobs here so students want to stay,” Sen. Ron Brown, (R-Eau Claire), said.

Brown was joined by Sen. Ted Kanavas (R-Brookfield) on Friday to discuss the new plan with area businesspeople. Kanavas is the co-chair of the Senate Select Committee on Job Creation.

Senate will push the plan, Growing and Reforming Our Wisconsin (G.R.O.W.), during its fall session, which begins Tuesday. The project will focus on the following areas: the state’s infrastructure, regulatory reform and tax relief and capital investments.

“The Legislature is working with the governor to build a plan for the economic future,” Kanavas said.

Educating and retaining UW System students is an important component of the state’s infrastructure, Kanavas said. The rest of the plan seeks to attract businesses to Wisconsin, keep them here and help them grow.

“We believe that intellectual property is the most important asset in the state,” Kanavas said.

In fact, he said, universities have acted as a wonderful hub of technology and Kanavas hopes they continue to work with private sectors to service their technology.

The senators said the System can continue to provide this intellectual property and talent to the state after its state funding was reduced, but one must look at the big picture.

“Nobody wanted to cut higher education,” Brown said, “but sometimes the right choice is painful.”

Kanavas agreed and said the cut was needed and now they are focusing on finding ways to reduce the cost of operating universities. As a member of the Joint Finance Committee, he doesn’t believe it will be making additional cuts to the System.

The Legislature is working to expand state revenue through growth and not a tax increase, Brown said. Raising taxes would not have been a good alternative for students, he said, because businesses would leave the state taking jobs for graduates with them.

“Then our education is of no value to the state,” he said.

It is important that the state be able to offer high-paying and innovative jobs to graduates, Brown and Kanavas said.

“This is a project that will continue to evolve if we build the G.R.O.W. package right,” Kanavas said.

The plan will take four to seven years to generate the velocity needed, he said, so first-year students should see a change in the economy when they are looking for jobs.

Until then, the senators offer advice to students who are now affected by the impacts of the budget cuts, such as higher tuition.

“(Students should) just focus on the investment they’re making in the future,” Brown said. “I believe they’ll get it back ten-fold.”

Kanavas sympathizes with students since he experienced budget cuts when he was in college. He said students have got to find a way to make it.

“The worse thing they could do is not continue their education.”