Report: State Entrepreneurship Growth Remains Slow

Wisconsin continues to have slower than average growth in its new small businesses. The Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation says the Badger State is 23rd among the 25 largest states in employment growth in the first five years of startup companies. The new report says the average Wisconsin startup grew its jobs by 51-percent from 2009 to 2014 — and the percentage of small startup firms that grew to 50 employees or more within ten years was only one-point-three-six percent. State Republicans have criticized Kauffman reports in the past, finding fault with data showing that the state ranks last among the largest 25 in overall startup activity. U-S Senate Democrat Tammy Baldwin highlighted that ranking on Saturday in Milwaukee, when she proposed an increase in the federal tax deduction for small startups from five-thousand dollars to 20-thousand.