The University of Wisconsin – Madison just released its most recent economic impact report. The punchline: the University of Wisconsin – Madison has a $30 billion economic impact on Wisconsin. That’s about 9% of the economy and it means that 232,057 workers in Wisconsin have jobs generated by UW-Madison’s spending, research, contracts, students, visitors, startups and partnerships. I know it happens because I can see it from my window.

University Research Park is the most common location for University of Wisconsin – Madison spinouts to locate. They come for the specialized infrastructure, incubators like Forward BioLabs and the MGE Innovation Center, the ability to scale easily, a central location, and the community of 4,100 knowledge workers.

Gov. Tony Evers proposed more than $329 million in new economic development initiatives as part of his state budget proposal, including a new $100 million venture capital fund to help startups and $200 million to assist small businesses hurt by the coronavirus pandemic.

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Improving access to investment capital for young Wisconsin companies, educating and training a strong workforce, making it easier to be an entrepreneur and building on the state’s tech infrastructure are four major themes of the Wisconsin Technology Council’s 2021 “white papers” report.

The report is timed for the start of a new session of the Wisconsin Legislature and the start of the 2021-23 state budget debate, which may focus in part on recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.