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LA CROSSE -- Earth Day has been expanded to Earth Month in this river town and the surrounding area.

The La Crosse Earth Week Coalition and other businesses and organizations have come together to stage a variety of "green" events. Mayor Matt Harter and County Board member Jai Johnson issued a proclamation at the start of the month proclaiming April "Earth Month."

Events have been held throughout the community, in schools and elsewhere. Several entertainment and education events are scheduled for Earth Day today.

Businesses also have been part of the month long celebration. A Green Expo, set for this Saturday at Western Tech's Lunda Center, will feature business vendors involved in "Green Homes" and "Green Transportation."

Topics ranging from Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) cars to geothermal heating and energy efficient bathrooms are among the featured green offerings at the Expo.

"We have a real variety of topics at the Expo," said Rebecca Brown, co-chair of the La Crosse Earth Week Coalition. "A core of 18 individuals has been meeting for months on planning the whole month, but it's become a real community event. We have 32 partners, which are non-profits, and 30 sponsors, which come primarily from the business community."

Honda Motorwerks is one of those sponsors. Chris Schneider, the owner, will speak about green transportation and also has donated one month free use of a Honda CNG auto as a door prize.

Schneider, who bills himself as the "Hybrid Guru," conducts CNG and hybrid clinics on a regular basis. "We have been talking about alternative energy vehicles here for over 10 years and over that period of time we have been able to double our employment," Schneider said.

Roald Gundersen, a builder of whole tree homes, will present a workshop. On Sunday, a tour of Driftless Farm, where Gundersen has built his own home using all of the trees with virtually no waste, will be conducted.

Another tour of a home, owned by Guy and Joan Wolf, which uses geothermal energy also is planned. A workshop on that topic is set for the Expo.

Earlier in the month, tours were conducted of area farms that are involved in the Community Supported Agriculture movement. Organic Valley, the dairy cooperative based in La Farge, is one of the sponsors of the Expo.

The Driftless Regional Bicycle Coalition will present a workshop on bicycle commuting and have a booth at the Expo. The city of La Crosse police department will display a propane-powered squad car.

Driftless Solar LLC, based in Spring Green; Enercept, a West Salem provider of structured insulated panels; First Supply, a La Crosse supplier of solar panels, and Fowler & Hammer, a La Crosse company specializing in environmentally-certified construction and renovation, are just some of the alternative construction companies that will have spaces at the Expo.

Green efforts of Gundersen Lutheran Hospital have been documented in the GreenBiz feature before. Gundersen is a major sponsor of Earth Month and will have a booth at the Expo.

The Green Expo is being held in conjunction with an Earth Fair at the Three Rivers Waldorf School. A shuttle bus will transport people between the two events.

La Crosse decided to make an extra effort to expand the traditional Earth Day last year, when it went to a week-long celebration. This year's full month celebration is being done in recognition of the 40th anniversary of Earth Day.

"There have been things going on almost daily throughout the month and they will continue for the rest of the month," Brown said.

On Earth Day itself, three-time Grammy Award winner Bill Miller will join with regional musician Dan Sebranek in a concert that has sold out. Miller also will present "Sacred Ground" -- an inspirational presentation from a Native American perspective -- during the day at Viterbo Fine Arts Center.

After the weekend, children's singer Hans Mayer will perform two concerts at Myrick Hixon EcoPark on Friday and Saturday, April 30 and May 1. Mayer has recorded "It's Our World: The Green Album" for children.

More information on all events for Earth Month can be found at www.greenlacrosse.com.

Brown said it has been very impressive how the business, governmental, non-profit, educational and other sectors of the La Crosse area have come together. "There truly has been a commitment made here," she said.

"I hope that the (attendees) can learn something about sustainable and how much the community is behind us," Brown added. "I know personally I was doing stuff at home and felt kind of isolated and alone, and then I found these people and though, 'Well, I'm not the only one'."

-- Hoffmann has written many columns and features for WisPolitics.com and WisBusiness.com over the years. He will write the GreenBiz column monthly.

Labels: Gregg_Hoffmann

George Bernard Shaw, the Irish author, wrote that "in heaven an angel is nobody in particular."

Sadly, the same appears to be true in Congress these days.

In the rush to punish Wall Street for sins real and imagined, Capitol Hill may also precipitate a fall from grace for a class of Main Street financiers essential to America's innovation economy: angel investors.

The financial sector reform bill being pushed by U.S. Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., takes direct aim at the wings of angel investors for reasons that defy explanation. If passed, this "Washington-knows-best" attempt to regulate some of the nation's most productive risk-takers could destroy the entrepreneurial economy.

Angel investors are often entrepreneurs who hit a home run in their own start-up businesses and who want to reinvest in other young companies. Angel investors are generally strong business executives with an eye for innovation, and they're not afraid to take a calculated gamble on companies that are too new to get financing from venture capitalists or too risky for banks.

They usually invest close to home and most often as individuals or within a family, but increasingly angels invest as members of angel networks or angel funds that offer some safety in numbers and more partners to screen potential deals.

In Wisconsin, angel investors have been in the vanguard of fostering the state's early stage economy. Five years ago, there were only a handful of angel networks in Wisconsin. Today, there are nearly two-dozen networks and funds -- and they're not shy about rolling the dice on Wisconsin companies in sectors such as biotechnology, information technology, medical device, advanced manufacturing and "cleantech."

In 2009, when most economic indicators were headed south, angel investors in Wisconsin actually took part in more deals and invested more money than in any previous year. Preliminary data from the Wisconsin Angel Network shows that while venture capital investing was down in 2009, as it was nationally, angel investing here increased.

But if Dodd has his way, these individualistic investors will be regulated out of existence.

The Restoring American Financial Stability Act, of which Dodd is the chief sponsor, would tighten regulation of the nation's financial system in ways large and small. It contains three provisions that would effectively kill angel investing in the United States:

* It would require start-up companies to register with the federal Securities and Exchange Commission, and wait at least 120 days for SEC review, before trying to raise money. Currently, fledgling companies can raise money from accredited investors without regulatory approval. Four months is an eternity in the life of a start-up company, and most would die in the vine before they ever get a chance to grow.

* It would redefine who is an angel. Accredited investors, who are people deemed wealthy enough to invest in start-ups, would be limited to those individuals with more than $2.5 million in assets (up from $1 million today) or a personal income of $450,000 per year (up from $250,000). This will dramatically decrease the supply of angels, which the University of New Hampshire's Center for Venture Research estimated at 259,000 in 2009. Those angels invested $17.6 billion in about 57,000 deals.

* It would subject investors and start-up companies to state-by-state rules versus a single set of SEC standards. Along with the new SEC filing requirement, that would add red tape, time and cost to the investment process.

In its frenzy to clamp down on Wall Street, Congress is threatening an investment community that fosters innovation, mentors young companies and generally cares about how the economy is faring where they live. Angels have helped to create some of today's biggest companies -- Apple, Amazon, Google and many more -- usually without putting anyone's money at risk other than their own.

Angel investing isn't perfect; the average return on investment proves that. But it's precisely the kind of bottom-up, largely self-regulated economic activity the nation needs as it struggles to create new companies and jobs. Only those federal lawmakers intent on a top-down, command-and-control economy would think otherwise.

-- Still is president of the Wisconsin Technology Council. He is the former associate editor of the Wisconsin State Journal in Madison. Read more about angel investing at www.wisconsinangelnetwork.com

Labels: Tom_Still

Another tax day has come and gone but concerns about the Wisconsin tax burden are as high as ever. Why is there a seemingly endless debate on this topic?

Probably because most individuals and businesses think their tax burden is too high -- regardless of what the tax rankings say. And speaking of rankings, the Census Bureau places Wisconsin's overall state and local tax burden at 14 highest among the 50 states in fiscal year 2006-2007.

That's good news for a state that has hovered in the top ten for decades.

Is it time to break out the champagne and declare victory?

Not quite yet. The Washington D.C. based Tax Foundation, which publishes a more up-to-date ranking says that we slipped back to 9th highest in 2008. And it gets worse. In the most recent State Budget the Legislature and the Governor raised taxes by nearly $3 billion -- among the largest tax increased in state history. It includes a 25 percent increase in corporate taxes, higher capital gains taxes, and a new top personal income tax bracket. Together they represent a larger tax increase for Wisconsin than almost any other state in the country. Experts believe these recent tax hikes will push our ranking even higher next year.

Most people understand that government spending drives taxes, and recent spending increases are another reason to be concerned as we look to the future. The State Budget included a 10 percent spending increase and a multi-billion dollar deficit, creating more pressure to raise taxes in the future. On top of that, the legislature loosened controls on school district spending and teacher salary increases. That will drive property tax hikes and increased state spending for school aids -- already more than 40 percent of the state general purpose revenue budget.

Some people believe that the solution to Wisconsin's tax and spending problems lies in changing the mix of taxes we impose on individuals and businesses. They argue that we should rely more heavily on sales taxes and user fees, two areas where our tax rankings are lower compared to other states. While this approach may have some appeal, be wary of politicians promising to raise one tax to lower another.

The history of taxation in Wisconsin, and arguably the reason we have a relatively high tax burden, is that the legislature created new taxes and increased them over the years based on the argument that the new revenue would be used to lower another tax.

In 1911, the legislature created the first state personal income tax in the nation arguing that they would use the proceeds to lower property taxes. Similarly, when the sales tax was first established in the early l960's, the rallying cry was "property tax relief." Each time the sales tax was increased, from 3 percent to 4 percent and then to 5 percent and then an additional half percent for counties, it was for -- you guessed it -- property tax relief.

So what kind of an impact did all that tax shifting have on Wisconsin's tax burden? Well, today we have both high income taxes and high property taxes, and a high overall tax burden that promises to get worse in the years ahead.

The obvious answer to the tax problem is to limit the growth in government spending at all levels. If we could limit the growth in government spending to a level that is slower than the growth in personal income, the tax burden would shrink over time. Conversely, if government spending grows faster than personal income, a larger and larger share of our families' resources will be consumed by taxes, leaving less and less for food, clothing, shelter and discretionary spending.

At the core, these issues are not complicated or difficult for our families to understand. What we need now is a new generation of political leaders with the will and fiscal discipline to pursue these common sense reforms.

-- Buchen is vice president of government relations for WMC, which represents 4,000 businesses in Wisconsin. WMC is dedicated to making Wisconsin the most competitive state in the nation.

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Wisconsin has never been known for its low tax burden. Even among those who didn't believe Wisconsin was a "tax hell," as some have called it, none have said that Wisconsin's tax climate was ideal.

But a recent report prepared by Ernst and Young for the Council on State Taxation ranked Wisconsin's state and local tax burden on businesses 30th in the country -- significantly better than the national average.

In addition, an investigation by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel found that while Wisconsin tends to rank poorly when only income and property taxes are considered, once various fees are taken into account -- such as toll roads and vehicle registration -- Wisconsin's ranking falls close to the national average.

And a new Department of Revenue report shows that Wisconsin has made a great deal of progress over the past several years in reducing the tax burden on citizens and businesses.

The DOR report found that Wisconsin's state and local tax rankings dropped to 15th per $1,000 of personal income and 21st per capita among the 50 states and the District of Columbia. That's the best ranking for the state in nearly 50 years -- since the 1961-62 fiscal year.

Wisconsin was also near the national average in terms of general revenue collected at 24th per $1,000 of income and 25th per capita -- the lowest level for the state in the history of the U.S. Census Bureau data.

All of this new data adds up to good news for Wisconsin.

Because of the good work done by Governor Doyle and the leadership in the state Legislature -- both Republican and Democratic -- Wisconsin has fallen out of the top ten "worst taxed" states, and continues to fall. Since Wisconsin was ranked 16th in the 1961-62 fiscal year, the state has only been out of the top ten three times since. Once was in FY 1979-80, and the other two were in FY 2005-06 and FY 2006-07 -- the two most recent fiscal years examined by the state Department of Revenue.

This isn't exactly cause for celebration. No longer being among the top ten worst taxed states in the nation - while certainly an improvement -- is not the goal we should set for ourselves. Clearly, more work needs to be done to further bring down the tax burden and make Wisconsin more competitive in attracting companies and highly skilled workers to our state.

But it's also clear that we're on the right track. Our state and local taxes -- relative to the national average -- have consistently fallen almost every year for the past decade, and that bodes well for the future competitiveness of our state. That is the direction we must continue.

We look forward to working with the Doyle administration, the next administration, and leaders in the state Assembly and Senate to improve Wisconsin's tax climate and grow new, well paying jobs in our state.

-- Taffora is the vice president of government relations & operations for the Wisconsin Business Council, an organization that seeks to support Wisconsin's economic climate and quality of life through collaboration, improved public policy, and private sector initiatives. For more information, please visit www.wibusiness.org.

Labels: Brian_Taffora