GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ) – As Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce (WMC) officially throws their support behind Republican Rebecca Kleefisch in the upcoming gubernatorial race, she is addressing concerns and plans to improve the economy across the state.
Kleefisch met with WMC leaders at a KI plant in Green Bay on Monday to share her plans for an economic resurgence in Wisconsin. She says a lot of things need to change for the state to get back on track.
“We are here at a chair manufacturer, and yet we are trying to make sure that nobody sits on the sidelines of this gubernatorial race,” Kleefisch said. “We see today 130,000 open jobs compared to just 49,000 people eligible to jump back into the work force to take them.”
She argues it’s time to end that kind of economic mismatch in the state.
“It’s time to take back control of our own lives and get excited about the future, to stand with job creators, and to stand with the workers of Wisconsin,” Kleefisch said.
“We need to fight for the workers of the state and the job creators who assure that, every day, Wisconsin will claw her way back to the top.”
Kleefisch ripped Governor Tony Evers for his approach to the economy during the pandemic, saying it had a rippling impact on the economy even as many work to rebuild.
“He turned our Wisconsin economic development corporation into a government agency that determine whether people’s lives were essential or non-essential in Wisconsin’s economy. That’s unconscionable for a government over reach that far,” Kleefisch said. “He has shut down the talent attraction program, and he also was one of the last governors in America to continue to pay people more to sit on the sidelines than to jump back into the economy.”
A KI employee works in the manufacturing facility on Green Bay’s east side during a stop from gubernatorial candidate Rebecca Kleefisch. (PHOTO: WTAQ News)
She also pointed out that KI already needs more than 100 extra workers, and that the east-side Green Bay location alone will need 194 extra workers over the summer.
“They’re not going to get those workers if Tony Evers and Joe Biden devise more ways to pay people more money to sit on the sidelines than to jump into the economy,” Kleefisch said. “We’re going to need tremendous reform in order to get folks back into the labor force, bring back our talent attraction program, put vocational training and trades training at every K-12 school district in Wisconsin, and we need to keep our schools open.”
Another issue she addressed when it comes to an economic resurgence, particularly in bigger cities, is safety.
“If you’re going to do economic development, if you’re going to ask job creators to invest and create jobs in a community, they’ve got to feel secure doing it,” Kleefisch said. “We have seen such an escalation in violent crime under Tony Evers because of his weak and failed decision making. I think it must be addressed, and it’s why I’ve said: as your governor, I’d put 1,000 more cops on the streets…I will use the bully pulpit of the governor’s office to assure that we respect the men and women who stand on the thin blue line.”
