Getting on the high-tech stick
10:21 PM 2/12/04
Jason Stein Business reporter

Attendees at the Governor's Conference on Economic Development got a clear message Thursday: Wisconsin has taken steps toward fostering its high-tech industries, but it needs to do much more. <

As a reminder of how easy it is to slide backward, Gov. Jim Doyle told attendees about a forthcoming Competitive Wisconsin survey that shows the amount of venture capital funding per worker in Wisconsin fell from $72 in 2000 to $19 in 2002. <

"We have the resources and the creativity," Doyle said of the nationally recognized research being done in the state. "We now have to get the capital." <

While Doyle touted his record on issues such as holding down taxes, some of the more than 400 attendees packed into the Concourse Hotel said economic improvement was on its way. <

Carl Gulbrandsen, managing director of the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation, said he thought the state was "coming off of a drought" in venture capital funding, citing a recent move by the state Investment Board to free up tens of millions of dollars for investments in the state. Joseph Hill agreed, saying he'd seen increases in investor activity in his work as director of the Medical College of Wisconsin Research Foundation. <

"It's not just capital, it's the number of parties," Hill said. "I think there's a lot more people who are looking at Wisconsin." <

Jim Riordan, president and chief executive of WPS Health Insurance, said Doyle's economic formula of holding down taxes while providing stimulus for investment and job training was at least a start. WPS recently chose to add some 1,200 jobs in Wisconsin, a decision that Riordan said was based on factors like the state's educational system and work ethic. <

Bill Bathke, chief operating officer of WPS, said the company is beginning to market its management information systems, developed for its own use, to new users such as banks. For those efforts to flourish, Bathke said, WPS needs to keep its costs down. <

"Putting a lid on taxes is really critical because we are competing on a global basis," Bathke said. <

Wisconsin also needs a bigger presence from "anchor" tech companies, large businesses like Intel Corp. whose operations would draw other investment, said Ross DeVol, regional economics director for the Milken Institute in Santa Monica, Calif. <

Adjusting for differences in population, Wisconsin's high-tech economy ranks 27th overall in the United States in size, DeVol said before his speech. To move out of