FRI AM News: WisBusiness: the Podcast with Mike Pochowski, Wisconsin Assisted Living Association; Panelists at Tech Council event discuss ‘intrapreneurship’ in Whitewater

June 13, 2025

— This week’s episode of “WisBusiness: the Podcast” is with Mike Pochowski, president and CEO of the Wisconsin Assisted Living Association.

Pochowski discusses some of the group’s top policy priorities, such as funding for the state’s Family Care program that helps low-income residents live in long-term care settings such as assisted living facilities.

“Over the past several years, we’ve been working with the governor’s office, the state Legislature, along with the Department of Health Services to try and get as much funding, or additional funding into the Family Care program,” he said.

This funding helps support provider facilities across the state, he said, noting it got a recent federal boost from the American Rescue Plan Act. With that funding, DHS instituted a minimum fee schedule last year, setting minimum rates for assisted living facilities that participate in the Family Care Medicaid waiver program, Pochowski explained.

“Which is then helpful, because prior to that, it was really more of strict negotiation with the managed care organizations to try and figure out what those rates should be … This at least sets a floor for what that reimbursement should be,” he said.

The group is looking to see about $202 million in the upcoming biennial state budget to continue the minimum fee schedule in its current form, he said.

Pochowski points to multiple assisted living facility closures in Wisconsin in recent years, arguing the Family Care funding is critical for these care providers.

“Ever since COVID in 2020 we’ve seen the cost of goods just really skyrocket, and from that, based upon how the Family Care program is set up, it doesn’t really adjust to the economic realities that have been in place,” he said.

He highlights the proposal for improving the economics of providing long-term care, referencing higher labor costs as a major challenge.

“We’re hearing from both sides of the aisle that they definitely want to help us, that’s kind of the main thing, that everyone understands the challenges that long-term care, that assisted living faces,” he said.

Listen to the podcast and see the full list of WisBusiness.com podcasts.

— Panelists at a Wisconsin Technology Council luncheon agreed that building a supportive company culture and hiring enthusiastic candidates can drive innovation from within.

The Tech Council yesterday held an event in Whitewater focused on the concept of “intrapreneurship,” or applying entrepreneurial thinking in an existing organization.

“It means empowering employees to really develop new ideas, take new steps, take some calculated risks,” said Investor Networks Director Joe Kremer, who moderated the panel discussion.

Peter Layton, founding partner of Blackthorne Capital Management in Whitewater, said company leaders looking to foster this approach should make it safe to try new things and fail while also rewarding success.

“So if someone was going to try and design a new algorithm, which we do all the time, then we test and we try it and we implement it, and monitor it to make sure it works well,” he said. “And if it doesn’t, we unplug it. And we then dissect, we do an autopsy. Why didn’t it work? What was our assumption that was wrong? So no one is held to ridicule.”

But in the case of a new idea working, “we acknowledge that person loudly throughout the whole organization” and award them with a bonus or other opportunities, Layton said.

Fred Varin, president of sales and marketing business TopLine Results Corp, noted the learning process is defined by making mistakes and avoiding them in the future.

“That’s the premise of what I wanted for my company, that people who are hired, I wanted them to be the best, but … to be able to feel comfortable to make mistakes,” he said yesterday.

Meanwhile, Blue Line Battery founder and President Dustin Herte outlined his approach, which involves dividing expertise among team members but discussing problems collaboratively in a shared workspace. He also said he hires people that have a genuine interest in the business, which manufactures industrial batteries including those used in forklifts.

“If they’re excited about the company, they think about it more, they want to build ideas together,” he said. “We hire knowing that’s a component of who they are … and then they need to get a feel for how to bring up those concepts and ideas and how to work with the team.”

While the discussion emphasized the value of fostering “intrapreneurship,” Layton also cautioned that company leaders need to act as a backstop to ensure such efforts don’t run amok.

“If you’re doing it on your own and you run out of cash, the market’s telling you it’s not working. There’s a stopping point,” he said. “Within a company, you as the owner or manager, you have to be the stopping point. You have to redefine what makes success and what makes failure.”

— The Senate Transportation and Local Government Committee signed off 3-2 on a bill that would create programs to lure people to move to Wisconsin.

SB 285 would direct the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation to operate a grant for municipalities, authorized tribes and certain nonprofits to create programs recruiting talented individuals to move to the state.

Applicants can be a municipality, American Indian tribe, or nonprofit organization and must provide the WEDC with a plan for a program to bring a certain number of households into the state. And the applicant must be willing to pay at least 20% of the cost of the program.

Under the bill, households who move to Wisconsin with an annual income of $55,000 or more would be eligible for these programs.

— Just six of the 23 economic factors tracked by the MMAC show improvement in April as employment weakened in the greater Milwaukee area.

The Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce yesterday released its latest economic trends report for April, marking a decline from seven positive indicators in March. Nonfarm employment fell slightly in April, the first year-over-year decline so far this year, according to MMAC Vice President of Economic Research Bret Mayborne.

“If there is any consolation it is that sector declines are mostly smaller in size and could be turned around quickly,” he said in the report.

Total nonfarm employment for the region averaged 858,000 in April, which is 0.2% lower than one year earlier. That followed a 0.1% increase in March based on revised figures.

Eight of the area’s major industry sectors lost jobs over the 12-month period ending in April, with the largest by percentage in leisure and hospitality, a 3.4% decline. Six of those had declines of 1% or less, while education and health services and other services sectors saw a 2.5% increase.

Meanwhile, unemployment figures “sent mixed signals,” authors wrote. While the number of unemployed people increased over the year, new unemployment compensation claims fell by about 33%. At the same time, the seasonally unadjusted unemployment rate for the metro area rose by 0.4 percentage points over the year to 3.5%, though that’s below the national rate of 3.9%.

See the report.

— While Wisconsin receives less per resident from the federal government compared to other states, cuts to that funding could still have significant impacts, including for those who rely on health programs.

That’s particularly true for seniors, veterans, students, the disabled, and low-income families, according to a new Wisconsin Policy Forum report. It says several federal programs have more than 1 million participants in Wisconsin, including Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.

The report largely relies on 2022 data on federal taxes and spending from the Rockefeller Institute of Government in New York to weigh the potential impact of funding cuts.

WPF notes in 2022, Wisconsin ranked 41st in the country for federal funding spent on average per resident.

Still, federal funding in Wisconsin exceeds that of local and state governments combined. In federal fiscal year 2022, Wisconsin residents, businesses and local and state governments and nonprofits received $86.46 billion from the federal government, about $14,700 per person. That amounts to about a quarter of personal income in the state in 2022.

Considering the scope of federal funding in Wisconsin, the report notes, “even modest changes in that spending could have substantial effects here.”

Wisconsin residents received more than $56 billion in direct payments to individuals from federal programs in 2022, according to the report, about $9,545 per resident. That included $29 billion for Social Security, $13 billion for Medicare and $7.6 billion for Medicaid.

See more from the report at WisPolitics.

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