But that`s been WMC`s usual stance in recent years, staunchly opposing any proposal that it perceives as challenging the status quo, and then turning it into a partisan political issue.

WMC has been nothing short of apoplectic over the Environmental Protection Agency`s carbon reduction plans, contending that for Wisconsin to reduce emissions over the next 15 years will bankrupt everyone from business owners to homeowners.

The business consortium`s vice president for communications, Scott Manley, is dispatched to spread the alarm through alarmist guest newspaper columns and appearances on radio and television shows.

But, as Harwood asks, wouldn`t it be more productive to actually work on a solution that could not only meet what really are quite reasonable EPA guidelines with ample time to meet them, but could really be a blessing for the health of Wisconsinites and of Earth itself?

As Harwood pointed out, the WMC should mention that the cost of solar is way down and natural gas can now fill in many of the gaps that the organization claims are problems caused by onerous emission limits on coal-fired power plants. Instead, Manley`s op-eds focus on the limits of wind power.

"Why can`t Wisconsin take a lead role in energy production, environmental sanity and a nonpolitical approach to working together as a state to create new jobs, a better environment for our kids and political sanity?" he asks. "Remember when Wisconsin used to lead the way on some very difficult issues that the nation was dealing with? Why can we not do this again?"

Why not, indeed.  

Dave Zweifel is editor emeritus of The Capital Times. dzweifel@madison.com and on Twitter @DaveZweifel

The Dane County wage numbers were included in the quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (CEW), the same that showed Wisconsin 35th among states in private sector job growth.

Areas like healthcare, information technology and education services were driving the pay increase, with wages in those sectors jumping by double digits. Construction wages in Dane County were also up sharply.

Paul Jadin, president of the business boosting Madison Region Economic Partnership or MadREP (formerly Thrive), says the jump in wages here is reflective of the region’s strength in higher-paying, technology-based sectors.

“What is most telling to me is how it shows Dane County doesn’t rely on manufacturing as much as the rest of the state,” he says.

Manufacturing wages in Dane County were up only 2.7 percent over the past year, with about 24,000 workers in that sector out of a population of 503,000.

Ken Harwood, who edits Wisconsin Development News, credits Epic Systems for contributing to the wage growth. The Verona-based medical records giant is the Dane County’s largest private sector employer with more than 6,000 staffers.

“Epic is bringing in all these kids and paying them $50,000 or $60,000 right out of college,” he says.

But Aaron Olver, economic development director for the city of Madison, was quick to caution that Epic Systems accounts for only 2 percent of total employment in Dane County and doesn`t account for the entire pay boost.

“While Epic certainly has an important impact, this top-line growth in wages reflects a more robust economy,” says Olver.

One potential quirk in the data is the line showing a nearly 49 percent increase in wages in the education and health services sector, with 189 new establishments formed over the past 12 months.

Jadin had no explanation for those figures and said it may take some more research to figure out what was accounting for that huge figure.

“It might be related to Obamacare but we’ll need to do more drilling down to determine what it is,” he said.

Dane County Executive Joe Parisi cheered the numbers, saying it shows the attractiveness of the region, its outdoor recreation, arts scene and diverse communities.

“Dane County leads the state in high-tech employment growth,” he says. “We have a culture of collaboration and innovation that suits this industry very well.”

The CEW is considered by most the economists the “gold standard” of data since it relies on actual job data gathered from 95 percent of U.S. employers. The data set released this week is for the 12-month period from September 2012 through September 2013.

But anecdotally, some in the real estate business do see less interest among young people today in buying a home or condo whether because of debt, a low-paying job or location choice.

“People who are more tempted to rent downtown are really opting for that more urban lifestyle,” says Chad Sperry, owner of the Condo Shoppe, a division of Restaino & Associates. “They aren’t looking to commit long-term.”

The broader housing market has clearly rebounded since the recession, with Dane County seeing 7,397 total sales in 2013, about 7 percent below the record 7,981 sales set in 2005.

At the same time, sales of lower-priced homes which are often considered the best gauge of first-time buying activity are still lagging a bit.

Figures compiled by Troy Thiel of Keller Williams show 2,564 sales of homes in the $100,000 to $250,000 price range last year in Madison, Fitchburg and Middleton. That’s about 26 percent below the number of entry level sales for those cities in 2005.

Thiel cautions against inferring too much from the data, however, noting that a lot of sales activity in the lower prices ranges came in Verona, Sun Prairie and Cottage Grove — areas not included in his analysis above.

Still, Thiel concedes that workers in technology fields, i.e. Epic Systems, are perhaps not the best market for selling a home or condo.

“There may be some truth to the millennials being less likely to buy right now,” he says. “It also has something to do with high-tech employees moving more frequently."

Epic’s impact on the local scene — the apartment market or otherwise — has sparked a lively discussion over the past few days. Alan Talaga in Isthmus this week asked whether Madison might see a backlash against tech workers like the one that has occurred in San Francisco, a topic explored in this week`s Capital Times cover story, “Boom Town.”

For economic development officials, the question is: How do you get those new arrivals to put down roots here, investing in the community and adding to the tax base and school system?

“I actually think we will see some of these (apartments) convert to condos as that market rebounds and the inventory becomes tighter,” writes Ken Harwood, editor of Wisconsin Development News.

Harwood has long predicted that downtown living would become the hot new trend in Madison as both young professionals and empty nesters seek a more lively urban experience.

“Now the trick will be to keep the YP`s and Boomers downtown,” he says. “We will need great schools, entertainment, heath care, grocery and lest you think I forgot, transportation.”

Anecdotally, Realtor Liz Lauer says her firm sold 15 homes to Epic employees last year and advises against painting with too broad a brush when considering the impact of Madison`s emerging technology sector.

“What I’ve found different today is that people moving here don’t just grab a Realtor and buy something,” she says. “They want to feel like they have some liquidity and don’t know if they will be in the city that long.”

At the same time, Lauer says as younger people decide to stay here, get married or start having children, they will consider making a longer term housing investment.

“I feel like millennials will still be buying homes, maybe just not right now,” she says....

Eventually the community would have to deal with issues that cannot be solved on an individual site or by a single project. These include power generation and distribution, retail, communication, employment, waste disposal, roads and transportation, land use, public facilities, trash and recycling, taxes or utility fees, parks, governance, public safety and the thousands of other issues that every community must deal with. The communities would of course remain under federal, state and local statutes, but would need to address many issues as an independent community.

As our 50+ “experiments” evolved, each community could eventually become a tourist destination so outsiders could explore a sustainable community functioning completely off the grid. Tourism could even become a revenue source for some of these communities. Media would no doubt take an interest in the projects and provide coverage that would attract corporate attention. I am guessing that companies like NEW Holland, Mercedes-Benz, Honda, GM, Hyundai, VW, Mazda, Ford, Caterpillar and others would be quick to bring electric or hydrogen-powered vehicles to the communities. Of course GE, Siemens, Vestas, Acciona and other wind companies would be very interested in power generation and distribution. This list would grow exponentially as solar power producers as well as bio-digestion, geothermal and other companies bid to participate and be seen as a solution to our energy problems. This list will not stop — think of: insulation, windows, building materials, power tools, sewage treatment, electronics, water delivery and purification, refrigeration, cooking, foods, pets, livestock, gardening... Clearly my one page mantra will abbreviate this list long before I run out potential problems or partners to solve them.

There are so many questions to answer. Communication, for example: Is using a powered cell tower or Internet provider not in the community fair? What about radio or TV signals? How does this differ from materials manufactured off site and then used for homes, businesses or projects in the community? Do we bring our trash to the “border” and pay someone to haul it away or do we deal with it internally?

By allowing the communities to address all of these issues without outside influence, additional funding, or specific mandates, we could learn from the attempts to establish next-generation power and other services, as well as governance. By having 50+ separate communities, we would see several different solutions to everyday problems. By not funding the individual projects we would see the true economics of the various solutions. Communities could range from survivalist camps to ultra-tech new urban cities and everything in between. The best of the ideas and technologies would quickly find their way into the mainstream and others would be found to be economically or otherwise unfeasible.

Well, there you have it — my one page solution to the world’s energy problems. Really though, I believe that with the right backing and support we could get some of the best minds in the world working on energy solutions with a very minimal investment. We poured billions into ethanol, only to see many of the projects fail and very little return on our investment. We invested little or nothing into Low-E glass and now it is a building standard seen by most developers as an investment. My suggestion is to grow solutions from needs and economic sustainability rather mandate them from our perceived notion of what the solution might be.

One of my favorite events is the U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon, a program that challenges 20 collegiate teams to design, build and operate solar-powered houses that are cost-effective, energy-efficient and attractive. The winner of the competition is the team that best blends affordability, consumer appeal and design excellence with optimal energy production and maximum efficiency. It is this year and open to the public from Sept. 23 to Oct. 2 on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. This is also the problem with the event — it is every two years for just one week. While the projects eventually are relocated, they become isolated and only address limited issues. My idea just raises the bar a bit....

Site Selection released its 2011 rankings this week, with Texas slotting in at No. 1 after being runner-up to North Carolina for the past nine years. North Carolina fell to No. 3 behind Georgia.

The magazine noted that companies are flocking, literally by the thousands, to the Lone Star State. The Atlas Van Lines annual study of corporate relocations in 2010 showed more than 7,200 business moves to Texas, 58 percent of all the relocations in the nation last year.

Moreover, nearly 40 percent of the new U.S. jobs created since June 2009 were created in Texas, the magazine reports.

In its rankings, Site Selection uses a 50-50 mix of hard data and interviews with business executives. Data measurements include new plant openings; total projects per million in population and 2011 tax climate as measured by the Tax Foundation.

Executives interviewed offered comments on why Texas is such a great place to do business. Among them were "a pro-business, entrepreneurial, right-to-work state" and "no state income tax, ease of pulling permits, available workforce."

The top five states named by Site Selection are all from the South but Indiana ranked No. 6, Ohio No. 9, Michigan No. 15, Illinois No. 21 and Iowa No. 23.

To find Wisconsin on the Top 25 list, you need to scroll all the way back to http://www.siteselection.com/sshighlites/1098/">1998, when the Badger State slotted in at No. 22 and Tommy Thompson was in the governor`s office. It hasn`t appeared in the Top 25 since.

States can move quickly up and down. California was No. 1 back in 2000 but has fallen to No. 20 in 2011. Michigan was No. 2 as recently as 2002.

Wisconsin did enjoy a nice mention in the May issue of http://chiefexecutive.net/">Chief Executive Magazine, which ranked the state as the 24th best in the nation to do business, up from 41st in 2010. That was the biggest increase of any state and http://walker.wi.gov/journal_media_detail.asp?prid=5809&locid=177"> a ranking that was http://walker.wi.gov/journal_media_detail.asp?prid=5809&locid=177"> cheered by Gov. Scott Walker.

The editors of Site Selection, based in Norcross, Ga., did predict a comeback of sorts in the Midwest http://www.siteselection.com/issues/2011/sep/Upper-Midwest.cfm">in this article published in September. It notes the Upper Midwest has lots of unused industrial capacity and is poised to rebound.

So how can Wisconsin improve?

"Hanging an open sign is only the first step in encouraging new business," says Ken Harwood, editor of https://kenharwood.com/">Wisconsin Development News and former mayor of Neenah. "We need to stock the shelves with products businesses want, like, great employees, good schools, continuing education, infrastructure improvements, and a stable tax environment."

Milwaukee area businessman and http://johntorinus.com/">columnist John Torinus says he doesn`t put a lot of stock in magazine rankings of business climate.

"To me there is only measurement that really matters and that is how many new companies are you creating," he says. "We  need to make Wisconsin the kind of place where people want to start a business."

On the positive front, metro Milwaukee -- which includes Waukesha and West Allis -- has ranked near the top nationally of major metro areas for job growth for most of 2011.

"Wisconsin is doing better but there is more to be done," says http://www.refocuswisconsin.org/wisconsin-weve-got-a-problem-by-tom-hefty-john-torinus-and-sammis-white"> Tom Hefty, former CEO of Cobalt Corp. and a longtime state business advocate.

But Wisconsin http://money.cnn.com/2011/09/18/news/economy/poverty_perry_texas/index.htm"> beats Texas on a couple of important measures. It has both a lower unemployment rate and lower poverty rate.

• Spend one-time money once. If your community gets a federal grant and hires three new police officers, next year it has no grant but three additional employees.

• Borrow only for things that will outlast the loan.

• Think globally by empowering locally. We need to focus on U.S. companies and opening overseas market to our products before we make cheap consumables available to the Walmart shopper.

• Banks don’t buy cars and houses, people do. Make loans and jobs available to the people so that they can stay in their homes, not to the banks so they can afford to foreclose.

• Use a cause and effect tax structure. If we need substantial road and transportation improvements, use gas and vehicle taxes to pay for them.

These are simple, obvious, logical rules -- most of which, if not all, will be broken before the next election. In two years I will be able to make the same recommendations, and I will sound as obvious then as I do now -- and that is the problem.

Ken Harwood

Unfortunately the real winners may not be the U.S. at all. Countries that ignore environmentally friendly policies and are able to supply lower cost energy will attract new manufacturing. Nike shoes and Apple Computers, manufactured abroad, would benefit — while New Balance and Dell, with North American facilities, would suffer. The debate has also become extremely partisan, which makes little sense to me because at the heart of the issue are domestic jobs and the U.S. economy. In the end we may actually create substantially more carbon emissions worldwide as our heavy manufacturing moves to countries with lower or nonexistent emission regulations.

Let me outline the dilemma as I see it. Assume the UW-Madison develops new technologies for an electric vehicle. A Wisconsin company licenses the technologies and develops a cost-effective prototype for a car with zero emissions. Plans for production begin and the company is forced to another region or overseas because of energy costs and government regulation. Can’t happen, you say -- I would point out that there are no televisions that are made in the U.S., most other consumer electronics are foreign, most cars are imports, most toys, clothes, and even much of our food is no longer domestically produced. I am a fan of the global market but the playing field has to be somewhat level for the game to be fair.

Now for the positive side of the energy dilemma. One Wisconsin firm has seen the tidal wave and decided to grab a surfboard and ride it in. I sat down with Scott Neitzel of Madison Gas and Electric and asked about the future of energy production in Wisconsin. Scott shared an MGE initiative, the Energy 2015 Plan, to create economic and environmentally responsible energy. The plan outlines that the company will discontinue burning coal at the downtown Madison Blount Generating Station by 2011, increase its use of wind tenfold, involve the customer in energy efficiency efforts, and secure a cleaner more reliable and affordable product across the board.

To date MGE has made good on the promise. The Blount facility will soon no longer rely on coal, MGE has increased its wind generation from 11 to 137 megawatts, and the company has incorporated new cleaner technologies into its generation facilities portfolio. In addition, MGE has educated the consumer and offers a Green Power Tomorrow program, which allows customers to voluntarily purchase renewable energy for a penny per kilowatt-hour and sell solar energy back to MGE for $0.25 per kilowatt-hour.

Neitzel suggests, “Renewable energy is a part of our corporate culture from the top down.” In describing how they got here he used a sports metaphor from Wayne Gretzky: “You skate to where the puck is going to be, not to where it is.”

The most interesting observation I can make is that MGE was not motivated by current policy or the looming cap and trade initiative. In fact the 2015 Plan was adopted in January of 2006, a full two years before the new administration or current legislative agendas. I learned a lot about balancing good business with good policy from Scott and MGE. I hope this lesson will be shared on Capitol Hill before legislation is drafted. We must remember that energy, the environment and good business is, like surfing, a balancing act. If we are really going to ride the wave to shore, we need to see it coming.

One more confession, I stole the whole surfing analogy from Scott. Sorry -- Cowabunga dude!

I have served on a school board, city council, or as mayor of a community in this state almost continuously since 1982 and I can count on one hand the number of times an elected official actually came to a meeting or sat down to talk with the local elected officials. I have seen countless pieces of legislation passed that would have no doubt benefited from the input of these local officials.

Specifically the qualified economic offer for teachers, tax incremental financing laws, and many of the grants and loans for business all slightly missed their intended mark. Just a little insight could have prevented errors that have had to be fixed or have cost the state real tax dollars, new business, or great teachers.

Wisconsin was founded on the ideal of part-time legislators in touch with their respective communities. While legislators retain residences in their district, the “in touch” factor is, in most cases, simply not there.

Ken Harwood

Verona

"My crystal ball says you will see a (Tom) Barrett announcement tied to the Obama visit next week. They will use Wisconsin`s leadership in education to stress the importance of a an education friendly administration. Just a guess. WDN is not meant to be political but the next governor will have a huge impact on economic development in the state," Harwood opines.

Dan Bice of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has the same thoughts you can read http://www.jsonline.com/watchdog/noquarter/65957092.html">here.

Ah, nothing like a good political race to get your mind off the economy.