A bipartisan group of leaders from the state, county and city levels met Thursday at the Global Water Center to discuss ways in which policymakers could support technology and innovation in the region.
Part of MKE Tech Week, the conversation was led by David Reeves, a Milwaukee native and the president of OpenGov, a Silicon Valley-based company that opened an office in the Water Center in 2020 and has hired 36 people in Milwaukee this year, Reeves said.
Multiple leaders agreed that in order to attract more companies like OpenGov, as well as tech talent that can work remotely from anywhere, Milwaukee needs to improve education, as well as basic infrastructure and services such as transportation, housing and childcare.
"What site selectors are looking for ... they're looking at childcare, they're looking at transit, they're looking at your quality of schooling — all those bread-and-butter things are part of how people make their decisions about where they're going to locate their companies," Wisconsin Department of Administration Secretary Joel Brennan said.
There was less consensus when it came to discussions of whether public investment in startups and venture capital should be prioritized.
Milwaukee Ald. Marina Dimitrijevic argued that some of the nearly $400 million that Milwaukee received in federal pandemic relief funding through the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) should be allocated to local innovation. Last week, Milwaukee aldermen approved a spending plan for the first half of the money, directing it at affordable housing initiatives, lead abatement and pandemic response efforts, among other things.
"There really should be a portion that is specifically dedicated to innovation incubation ... that could directly impact those that want to invest here that might need that startup (capital)," Milwaukee Ald. Marina Dimitrijevic said. "Some would offer that the government doesn't have a role in that, that that should just be the private sector, but I don't see it that way. I think that we have to disrupt the cycle."
Discussing the $100 million Wisconsin venture capital fund of funds that Gov. Tony Evers proposed but that was left out of the state budget, Brennan said "there is a role for government to do that."
The proposed fund, which could come to fruition through a separate bill, would be matched by private dollars and invested in early-stage venture capital funds, with the public dollars earmarked for Wisconsin-based companies.
Sen. Dale Kooyenga (R-Brookfield) said he wasn't "a hard no" on the idea, but said that with other priorities the state has, the money should be spent elsewhere, such as on K-12 education or lower taxes.
"I don't think that the problem right now is a lack of capital," Kooyenga said. "If you're in a startup company, I'm sure you feel like there's not enough capital, of course. ... That may be a public policy program we need to do in the future but as of right now, I don't see that as one of our biggest challenges."
Rep. Dora Drake (D-Milwaukee) and Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley also participated in the discussion.
