Being Bold
Competitive Wisconsin, Inc. was formed in 1981 after a meeting of business and labor leaders was held in the basement of the Executive residence with then-Governor Lee Sherman Dreyfus. At the time, Wisconsin was facing its worst economic slump since the Great Depression and unemployment eventually topping out at 11.7% in late 1982.
The impact of the new organization was immediate. In the first eight years, CWI worked to:
- Lower personal income taxes from 11.4% to 6.93%
- Eliminate the Wisconsin Gift Tax
Twenty-five years later this nonpartisan consortium of agriculture, business, education and labor leaders is working together, creating CWI 2.0 to continue to improve the economic climate of Wisconsin and encourage expansion of existing businesses, while attracting new business.
The roadmap to our current efforts is Be Bold: The Wisconsin Prosperity Strategy. This strategy has been distilled from the findings of the 2010 Wisconsin Economic Summit Series, which was convened by the UW System, CWI, The Wisconsin Technology Council, the Wisconsin Way and the Wisconsin Higher Education Business Roundtable, as well as prior commissions and engagement efforts dedicated to revitalizing our state.
