Madison – Representative Warren Petryk (R-Town of Washington) released the following statement regarding the governor’s announcement to invest in Wisconsin’s workforce.
“I’m pleased to see the governor finally acknowledge that there is a workforce crisis in our state, and in announcing an investment of some of the federal COVID stimulus dollars, he is finally going to help people find employment. But, if he were serious about actually helping the workforce crisis, he would have made these investments a year ago, like I, along with my fellow Assembly colleagues, requested of him.”
Last September, I sent a letter with other Workforce Development and Labor Committee colleagues in the Assembly asking the governor to use some of his unallocated Federal CARES Act dollars to fund workforce training. We asked him to use these federal funds to help connect those on unemployment insurance to additional training to find a career, or to help our local workforce development boards connect workers to local services. While other states were innovating to help people find jobs during the pandemic, this governor chose not to act until today.”
I hope that his announcement today will move the needle forward in helping our state and those affected by COVID-19, but I worry that his inactions to date have already made the workforce crisis worse than it needed to be.”
