Cooperation along the I-Q Corridor will help Wisconsin compete globally

Cooperation along the I-Q Corridor will help Wisconsin compete globally

Madison, Wis. – There are many entertaining ways for diehard Wisconsinites to nurture a border rivalry with Minnesota: Packers versus Vikings, Badgers versus Gophers, and our 14,000 lakes versus their 10,000 lakes. But missing a chance to cooperate on saving taxpayer dollars in hard times isn’t one of them.
That’s why Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle, a Democrat, and Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, a Republican, announced Jan. 13 they will work together to save money on everything from buying road salt, software, and bulldozers to operating state telephone call centers.
Dubbed by some the “Minnesconsin Initiative,” state governments in Madison and St. Paul are reaching across political borders created in territorial days to find ways to cooperate in an era of globalism.
But it shouldn’t stop with joint purchasing, shared use of vehicles and collaborating on a host of services performed by both states. As the states build a track record of working together, policymakers in each state should also think about how to jointly compete in a world economy.
There was a time when interstate economic competition mattered a lot more than it does today. But that was a time before the Internet, overnight delivery, on-demand manufacturing and other social, economic and technology trends that have reshaped our lives. Today, we should worry at least as much about competing with Mumbai as we do Minneapolis.
Scale of competition
Wisconsin represents a little less than two percent of the national gross domestic product, and a much smaller fraction of the world economy. It’s hard to stand out alone when the population of Wisconsin, roughly 5.6 million, could be contained in any one of China’s four largest cities or in any of India’s three largest.
When viewed as part of a larger Midwest corridor, however, Wisconsin and its neighbors play a bigger game. It’s defined as the “I-Q Corridor,” the 400 miles that connect the Twin Cities on the northwest to Chicago in the southeast.
Innovation, intellectual property, investment and, of course, interstate make up the “I” and quality of workforce, education and life in general form the “Q.” The region is home to major research universities, federal labs, investment capital and major tech-based companies in pharmaceuticals, medical devices and more. The I-Q Corridor is also home to more than 14.3 million people who live within a short commute of I-90, I-94 or I-43 between Chicago and the Twin Cities. Collectively, that’s a region that counts by any global measure – and it offers some tangible examples of economic cooperation:

Ignoring state lines
Unfortunately, there are many more examples of Midwest states living out football field rivalries when it comes to economic development – often because it means a perceived tax base win or loss. Wisconsin is probably no exception to the rule, if you ask economic development professionals in Illinois, Minnesota, or Iowa. However, tax breaks and land incentives to lure a company across state lines are not as productive as programs designed to create more and better entrepreneurs, or to help existing companies compete globally.
“When it comes to thinking about economic growth, each state is bound by state lines that were drawn by the Northwest Ordinance more than 200 years ago,” said Richard Longworth, author of “Caught in the Middle: America’s Heartland in the Age of Globalism,” at a 2008 Wisconsin Innovation Network meeting in Madison. “But the economy ignores states and state lines.”
Midwest state governments and major institutions such as public land-grant universities should continue to explore ways to cooperate where cooperation makes sense. Our competitors in China, India, or the European Union don’t really care about state lines drawn in 1787. They care about today’s economic realities. So should we.
Recent column by Tom Still

Tom Still is president of the Wisconsin Technology Council. He is the former associate editor of the Wisconsin State Journal in Madison.
The opinions expressed herein or statements made in the above column are solely those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Wisconsin Technology Network, LLC. WTN accepts no legal liability or responsibility for any claims made or opinions expressed herein.