Pierce County Profiles

Wisconsin's business tax structure offers several advantages relative to our neighboring state of Minnesota along with a range of exemptions and incentives to encourage ongoing capital investment.  We will be glad to provide a specific projection and two-state comparison customized to your project parameters for your review with your tax advisor.

Pierce County is blessed with a wide range of education, training, and employment resources for local firms.  Home to a recognized and accredited campus of the University of Wisconsin, Pierce County also is strategically located within a 50 mile radius of fifteen technical and community college campuses, representing a pool of over 25,000 graduates each year from which to recruit.  Pierce County’s six school districts are also recognized for outstanding secondary education programming, resulting in above-average graduation rates, test scores and continuing education participation.

There are also several outstanding private workforce development firms that serve Pierce County and provide efficient service in the areas of job skill evaluation, compensation and benefit surveying, recruiting, evaluation, training, and forecasting.  Human resource professionals of the region meet monthly at the St. Croix Valley Employers’ Association, a peer group recognized by the Society of Human Resource Management and an excellent networking and information sharing resource for Pierce County firms.

Pierce County offers a convenient, cost effective and globally connected location for your business.  We are in the southeast corner of the vibrant and cosmopolitan Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan area, rated one of "America's Smartest Cities" by American Business Journals.  MSP International Airport, one of the world’s major air transportation hubs with convenient flights to key international destinations, is one half hour west of the City of Prescott and within an hour and ten minutes of all of Pierce County.  Executive jet aircraft often find advantage in using the Red Wing Regional Airport’s 5,010 foot runway, fuel service and FBO operations located in southern Pierce County. Interstate 94 is just north of Pierce County for easy highway access to the Twin Cities, Chicago, Kansas City, and the rest of the country.  Several local trucking and warehousing firms provide a wide range of logistics services .  The Burlington Northern Santa Fe system main line between the Twin Cities and Chicago runs along Pierce County’s southern border, and four other rail systems maintain facilities within a half hour of our County.  There’s even a Mississippi River terminal across from Pierce County for  users of commodities transported by river barge. 

The County’s metro location, just across the scenic St. Croix and Mississippi Rivers from Minnesota, also carries the unique potential of business tax savings from a Wisconsin platform.  Generally, Wisconsin’s business tax structure climate offers a more favorable commercial and industrial property tax rate, a more favorable corporate income tax rate, a more favorable unemployment compensation base and rating system, and more favorable workers’ compensation tax rates for most occupations.  Some companies have found that their tax savings from moving to Wisconsin has completely financed the debt service on their new Wisconsin facilities. 

Contact Pierce County Economic Development Corporation for case studies and a customized two-state tax comparison for your new facility.