Witt’s Piggly Wiggly, Oconto Falls, hosted an awards presentation July 28 honoring state Sen. Tom Tiffany, recipient of the Friend of Grocers award presented by the Wisconsin Grocer’s Association.
The award is given to legislators who score high on the WGA’s Legislative Report Card, which evaluates the support of the grocery industry shown by legislators during the 2013-14 session. About 25 awards are presented for every two-year term.
It was the second Friend of Grocers award for Tiffany, R-Hazelhurst. He also earned one while serving as a state representative from 2010-12.
Witt’s was chosen to host the award ceremony because Oconto Falls is new to the 12th Senate District, which Tiffany represents, said Brandon Scholz, WGA’s president and CEO.
Witt’s Piggly Wiggly, founded by Gerald Witt in downtown Oconto Falls in 1958, is co-owned by Gerald’s sons, David, Tom and Steve. They built the facility at 409 E. Highland Drive in 1985.
The store employs 85 workers.
“That’s why grocery stores are so attractive to communities and developments. Everybody wants one because they create new jobs and they’re very stable. They also give back a lot,” Scholz said.
According Scholz, legislative issues important to grocers are labor issues and unemployment insurance reforms. Another issue is allowing grocers to sell growlers, which are 64-ounce containers of craft beer available for sale at brew pubs but not at grocery stores.
“We’re looking to move forward on that, but there’s lots of challenges,” Scholz said.
David Witt said he would be interested in selling growlers.
“The craft-brewing area of my beer sales business is the only area that’s really grown the last three, four years consistently,” he said.
Changes to the unemployment insurance program also affected grocers. Witt said the store rarely lays off employees and has few recipients of unemployment, yet still contributes to the fund. In addition to these contributions, the store paid an assessment to the Wisconsin’s Unemployment Insurance Reserve Fund.
“Now I was having this industry tax on top of that for a couple of years, so essentially, I was subsidizing the other industries that do use those funds more than I was,” Witt said.
The state accessed federal loans to cover its record number of unemployment claims resulting from the recession that started in 2007. The federal government charged the state interest on these loans beginning in 2011, with funds collected through a special assessment on employers.
“For some retailers, it was hundreds of thousands of dollars, based on your payroll,” said Michelle Kussow, WGA’s vice president of government affairs and communications.
“It was a requirement that we had to charge those assessments … so we took care of that part of it to relieve some of the burden on small business people,” Tiffany said.
The 2013-15 state budget allocated $30 million of general purpose revenues to pay the interest for 2013-15.
Another issue affecting grocers, the personal property tax on items such as coolers and equipment, will be the subject of a study committee this summer, according to Tiffany.
“There’s a lot of states that don’t have (a personal property tax). It’s called a redundant tax, and we are looking at changing that. No guarantee that we’ll be taking that up, but we are looking at making some changes to that possibly in the next session,” he said.
“It’s one of those taxes that’s hit small businesses disproportionately,” Kussow said.
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