U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin Highlights Efforts to Boost Wisconsin Start-Ups in Altoona

ALTOONA, WI – U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin visited Altoona today to highlight her efforts to support small business, start-up growth in Wisconsin.

At the Altoona Fire Station, Senator Baldwin met with Fire Captain Jeff Dykes, founder and owner of small business, start-up Northern Star Fire. To enhance firefighter safety, Northern Star Fire developed equipment to help firefighters navigate through burning buildings when protecting properties and saving lives. Altoona Fire Chief Mark Renderman and Chancellor James Schmidt of the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire also attended the visit.

“Wisconsin has a proud history of entrepreneurship and innovation, but recent reports show that we need to do more to support our Made in Wisconsin start-ups,” said Senator Baldwin. “Small businesses are the engines of our economy and if we provide tax relief to start-ups, we can free up investments to create jobs and grow our economy. We need to make it easier for entrepreneurs like Jeff to start Northern Star Fire and grow his new business. There is bipartisan support to increase federal support for start-ups and we should work together to deliver results for our Wisconsin start-ups.”

According to the Kauffman Foundation, one of the country’s leading entrepreneurship advocacy and research organizations, Wisconsin ranked last in business start-up activity in reports released in 2017, 2016 and 2015.

Senator Baldwin has introduced tax reform legislation including the Support Our Start-Ups Act that will make it easier for entrepreneurs to start a new business like Northern Star Fire by increasing the amount of start-up costs they are able to deduct from federal income taxes. Senator Baldwin has also joined bipartisan legislation led by Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) to increase the amount of startup funding in underserved states like Wisconsin. The Spurring Business Investment in Communities Act passed out of the Senate Small Business Committee with unanimous approval earlier this month.