WED AM News: Rapid Radicals targeting Great Lakes region rollout in coming years; GOP lawmakers circulate bill to end data center tax exemption

October 7, 2026

— After securing a patent late last year for its wastewater treatment technology, Rapid Radicals aims to deploy the tech in major Midwest cities and coastal communities in the coming years.

That’s according to founder and Chief Technology Officer Paige Peters, who spoke yesterday during the Wisconsin Technology Council’s Launch Wisconsin conference at Marquette University in Milwaukee.

Her Milwaukee-based business, which previously won the grand prize in the Wisconsin Governor’s Business Plan Contest in 2022, offers a water treatment system packaged into a modular shipping container called the Torrent3.

Along with reducing the footprint needed for municipal and industrial water treatment, the company boasts a substantial reduction in hauling and operational costs for customers.

“I truly believe that it can solve some really important problems,” Peters said yesterday of her company’s technology and where it’s headed. “Seeing blue containers on … the five most important sewer overflow locations for the Great Lakes cities and coastal cities, seeing this deployed at industrial facilities where we can really help, like I said, solve problems and eliminate burden on municipalities.”

She launched her company 10 years ago as a spin-off from Marquette University after establishing a method for treating municipal wastewater 22 times faster than conventional treatment systems currently in use. The business has since expanded its scope to include industrial wastewater.

While Peters expressed confidence in the effectiveness of her company’s solution to wastewater treatment, she noted the sector she chose to target is capital-intensive and highly technical.

“We are trying to sell to a very slow-moving, risk-averse, long sales cycle industry, which means that timing can be incredibly unpredictable,” she said, adding “there’s statistics that say it takes 12 years for any sort of water technology to leave the lab and enter the market. We did it in nine years, so I feel really excited about that.”

Meanwhile, Peters urged other entrepreneurs in attendance to ensure what they’re developing is truly responsive to “the problems of the market,” especially those with a built-in customer base.

She referenced Rapid Radicals’ efforts to apply its tech elsewhere, such as dairy processing. Within three months of making that pivot, the company had its first customer and had started deploying its system on-site.

“A problem is really only something someone is willing to pay to solve, not just a nuisance, not just an inconvenience,” she said. “So factoring that in as I scaled the technology was really, really crucial.”

— Four GOP lawmakers – two of whom are retiring – are circulating a bill to end the sales and use tax exemption for data centers.

Sen. André Jacque in a statement said he drafted the bill for the next session, “but I think it’s important for people to know where their legislators stand on something like this, and creating a public opportunity for legislators to indicate their support can help accomplish that.”

His statement also noted that GOP gubernatorial candidate Tom Tiffany had backed ending the data center subsidy, while Dem candidate David Crowley had not. Crowley, the Milwaukee County executive, has said he wants to make it harder to qualify for the tax incentives.

Jacque, R-New Franken, and cosponsor Rep. Dean Kaufert, R-Neenah, are not running for reelection. Reps. Lindee Brill, R-Sheboygan Falls, and Shae Sortwell, R-Two Rivers, are also named as cosponsors.

GOP legislative leaders did not immediately respond to queries yesterday about the bill. The Legislature’s regular session adjourned months ago.

A spokesperson for Assembly Minority Leader Rep. Greta Neubauer, D-Racine, called the bill a “stunt.”

Brill said in a statement she was backing the bill despite a clear path forward this session because it’s “important to start the conversation on this topic.”

Brill also noted she’d heard from local business owners in the 27th AD whose employees are being recruited to work on the Vantage-Oracle-OpenAI data center campus in nearby Port Washington.

Four data center facilities – the Port Washington site, the Meta facility in Beaver Dam, the Microsoft campus in Mount Pleasant, and Epic’s data center at its Verona headquarters – have qualified for the tax incentive.

The Legislative Fiscal Bureau in March estimated the state would forgo $1.5 billion in sales tax from those four facilities during construction, followed by $369 million annually.

The Wisconsin Policy Forum in September projected the state would recoup a “significant portion” of the forfeited tax revenue through other income streams, but not all of it if the tax incentive does not attract additional data center investment.

Wisconsin is one of 38 states that offer tax incentives to data centers.

Wisconsin enacted the tax incentive as part of the 2023-25 state budget, which passed both houses with only Republican votes and was signed by Gov. Tony Evers. A standalone bill creating a tax exemption for data centers that year also passed the Assembly in a voice vote.

— The Wisconsin Cheese Makers Association is calling for the reversal of a new cost-sharing requirement for programs helping dairy businesses, arguing it will keep recipients from continuing their work.

The group yesterday issued an appeal to USDA leadership against the new 25% cost-share requirement for the Dairy Business Innovation Initiatives, which provide resources to the dairy sector in 41 states and territories.

They include the Dairy Business Innovation Alliance, the Northeast Dairy Business Innovation Center, the Pacific Coast Coalition-Dairy Business Innovation Initiative, and the Southeast Dairy Business Innovation Initiative. Since being created in the 2018 Farm Bill, the centers have awarded more than $106 million in grants to 911 dairy businesses.

WCMA notes they’re all housed within public universities, with participation from state ag agencies and nonprofit trade associations, adding these groups “generally do not have unrestricted resources available” to meet the new matching requirement.

“Our farmers and food processors cannot afford to lose this support – especially now, as they face a host of new economic pressures,” Rebekah Sweeney, the group’s senior director of programs and policy, said in a statement.

The association also notes grant funding from these initiatives have met just over a third of demonstrated demand based on the competitive award process, and demand for DBI funding has only risen over time. The release notes dairy farmers and processors are challenged with volatile markets, higher costs, workforce struggles and more.

“Dairy businesses need every available tool to improve efficiency, develop products, reach new markets and strengthen demand for farmers’ milk,” Sweeney said.

See the release.

— Wisconsin has received $11.4 million in federal funding for a program offering home visiting services, including help for pregnant women and young children to improve health outcomes and development.

The Association of State and Tribal Home Visiting Initiatives this week announced the funding from the Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting Program, marking an increase of about $750,000 from last year’s allocation.

The extra funding is tied to Wisconsin providing a non-federal matching rate of $1 in state funding for every $3 in federal funds, according to the announcement. The state’s program is overseen by the Wisconsin Department of Children and Families.

Evidence-based home visiting models provided through the MIECHV program have been shown to improve health outcomes, as well as behavioral and economic measures for families across the country, the association says.

“Research shows a family’s relationship with a home visitor improves birth outcomes, strengthens early development, increases school readiness, and reduces the risk of child abuse and neglect,” the group said in the announcement.

Health Resources and Services Administration Administrator Tom Engels says the new funding will help states and other jurisdictions “provide pregnant women and families the support they need” during the critical early period of a child’s life. He called home visiting services a “key pillar” of the Trump administration’s Make America Healthy Again agenda.

“When children receive the support they need early in life, we’re promoting their development and laying the foundation for better health throughout their lives,” he said in a statement.

See the release.

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