United States-Help for meat and farming industries.

UNITED STATES-HELP FOR BUTCHERS AND FARMERS.

Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection Secretary Rod Nilsestuen stopped by Glenn’s Market and Catering in Watertown Thursday morning to discuss aspects of the governor’s budget repair bill that will help benefit the meat processing industry.

"What Gov. (Jim) Doyle put into the budget repair bill was mostly cuts and restraints to deal with the tremendous economic situation we have, but we also did a few things to make longer term investments in growth," Nilsestuen said.

"In the end, the way we are going to get out of this recession is by growing out of it and the way you grow out of it is make investments and have a focused strategy on those areas which have proven they have staying power," he added. "And there’s nobody that comes close in my mind to our local plants."

According to Nilsestuen, the budget repair bill includes a 10 percent investment credit for state meat process plants that undertake expansion projects.

One of the beneficiaries of the investment credit is Glenn’s Market, which is in the process of constructing an 8,000-square-foot addition that will house a Hispanic meat market. The addition is scheduled to be completed by April 1, said Glenn Roberts, owner of the market. If you have a modernization like this (Glenn’s addition), for much of the expenses for doing that, there’s going to be a 10 percent credit against the cost and that’s not a deduction, it’s a credit," Nilsestuen said. "So, that’s money in your pocket that you can put into your business and not only does the community benefit long-term, the state does because you are growing and you are going to hire more people."

Roberts said the addition should create around five new jobs.

According to Nilsestuen, the investment credit has worked extremely well in other sectors of agriculture over the past five years.

"Wisconsin ag has really been on a roll in the last five, six years and that’s partially a matter of good timing but it is also the fact that the state has partnered with its ag industry in a big way," Nilsestuen said. "So there has been far more components for growing ag than for anything else in the governor’s Economic Grow Wisconsin Plan."

Nilsestuen said the state previously implemented a tax credit for the farming and dairy industries and the results have been promising. He added that over the past five years the state experienced $1 billion worth of reinvestment at the farm level and $500 million at the dairy plant level.

"We’ve added 42 new varieties of cheese in the last three years and we are now producing over 600 varieties of cheese in Wisconsin, which is not only more than any other state, it’s more than any other nation, and we are winning the lion’s share of international awards," Nilsestuen said. "We are growing and I think we can do a very, very similar thing with the meat industry."

Roberts said he liked the idea of the reinvestment credit and added that business owners who take risks should be rewarded.

"The tax incentive is not a bad idea," Roberts said. "I would have done this (addition) either way, but in the business world - I’m probably not in agreement with the rest of the world - the small people are what make this world run, the guys that take an incentive.

"This is about a $1.6 million project now and we’ve got about $1 million in the other half, so we have a $2.5 million building here," he added. "For a kid who just graduated high school and didn’t go to school after that that’s quite an undertaking. There should be some reward for the risk that you take."

Nilsestuen said the reinvestment credit comes at a perfect time because last year Wisconsin was successful in overturning the prohibition on interstate meat sales.

"If you were a state-inspected place like Glenn’s (Market), you couldn’t sell an interstate commerce," Nilsestuen said, referring to the interstate meat prohibition. "It had nothing to do with quality, it had nothing to do with the safety or the standards because Wisconsin has not only met but exceeded federal standards for decades. So, it wasn’t health and food safety, it was a fence-me-in, fence-them-out sort of thing that you get in commerce.

"We had to compromise a little bit and so we are going to have to live with some rules that we are going to keep working on changing, but we’ll get that done," he added. "But this is a major step forward because for the first time plants that are willing to invest, that have worked on quality for a long time, now have an opportunity to expand beyond their local areas."

To help show how damaging the interstate meat prohibition was for businesses in Wisconsin, Nilsestuen talked about a plant in Hudson called RJ’s Fresh Meats that is located on the St. Croix River across from the Twin Cities in Minnesota.

"They can see Minnesota from the plant, from their front window, and probably 95 percent of their potential market population is on the other side of the river, but they can’t market for it," Nilsestuen said.

"A couple of years ago RJ’s won six of the top 10 best in class at the state fair, so it was a pretty good product, pretty well done" he added. "They get a call from the Minnesota State Fair asking for 7,000 brats, and he has to say, ’I’m sorry, but we can’t take it across the river.’ Well, that’s nuts."

With these recent changes, Nilsestuen said he is confident Wisconsin can remain a leader in meat sales.

"Everybody knows that Wis-consin is America’s Dairyland and we have a lot of cheese and everything, but what isn’t nearly as well recognized is the fact that we’re also the No. 1 specialty meat state in the country, year in and year out," Nilsestuen said.

"We have over 300 small, mostly Main Street meat plants and processors in the state and that’s by far more than any other state," he added. "In fact, over 20 percent of all the small, state-inspected plants in the country are here in Wisconsin."

Following the presentation by Nilsestuen, those in attendance took a tour of Glenn’s Market to learn more about the local business.

Glenn’s Market opened in 1983 at a 2,000-square-foot building on North Water Street. The business moved to its current location on West Main Street in 1995.

The new addition to Glenn’s Market will increase the size of the building to 23,000 square feet. The new department will have its own entrance, but customers will be able to access the whole building from the inside.