With a nod to our new president and his campaign platform, I am assuming the role of Corporate Report editor amidst a sea of change.

My byline has appeared in this magazine for more than a decade, and it’s been interesting to watch how our state has evolved – and has not – during that time period.

A decade ago, few companies were considering the implementation of green construction, which we’ll be featuring in our May issue. In July, we’ll be taking an in-depth look on how Milwaukee’s future very well could be in water technology and the positive implications these efforts just might have for the entire Great Lakes region.

On a more immediate level as the new editor, I’ve been intently following the budgetary and stimulus work both at the state and national level as well as the transition to new leadership under the Obama cabinet.

Being a natural optimist, I think it’s far too soon to call it one way or the other for business. With that said, it’s never too soon to be concerned and proactive about issues that impact you and your business.

On the state level, last month Wisconsin’s legislative leaders introduced a stimulus bill that contains a significant change in the state’s corporate income tax. The switch is called combined corporate income tax reporting, and requires businesses to pay taxes on profits earned by subsidiaries in other states with no connection to Wisconsin.

According to Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce, the switch to combined corporate income tax reporting could increase business taxes by as much as $100 million.

Seventeen business groups in the state have already joined together as the Coalition to Save Wisconsin Jobs in opposition to this measure.

On the national level, President Obama is right: We can’t just do nothing. But are we doing the right thing?

Wisconsin’s own Seventh District Congressman Dave Obey, Chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, is one of the lead authors of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (H.R. 1). Kudos to Obey and his fellow authors for their efforts in trying to provide a solution to the multifaceted crisis our country is dealing with right now. Regardless of your political persuasion, I think we can come to the table in agreement when I say that it’s clear there is no easy fix for us in 2009.

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act is behemoth of a bill, and as both a business editor and a taxpayer, I’m not quite sure that such expensive fiscal brush strokes are needed right now. If you haven’t read it – or attempted to read it – I suggest trying it, as I have, if even for a few pages. 

Using a stimulus bill to advance political policy just seems like bad, expensive policy to me.

Call me old fashioned, call me frugal. But if there’s anything that we should have learned from the generation of Americans who survived the Stock Market Crash of 1929 and the subsequent Depression, spending money that you don’t have just leads to trouble.

Buckle up, readers; I think we’re in for quite a ride.

By Laurie Arendt

Laurie Arendt is editor of CRW. She can be reached at crweditor@crwmag.com