The Wisconsin Budget Project looked at the two years before the credit went into effect compared with the two years after to conclude that manufacturing job growth was the same, but Manley said the better comparison would be the years before and after it was enacted in 2011. From 2006 to 2010, which included the period of the Great Recession, the state lost 81,800 manufacturing jobs and since then has added 34,000.

“Any discussion about repealing or reducing the value of the manufacturing credit is a discussion about raising taxes on manufacturing jobs,” Manley said. “If the Democrats want to have that debate in the second-most-intensive manufacturing state in the country, we’ll have that debate and we’ll win it.”

The tax credit for farmers and manufacturers has gradually phased in since 2013, from 1.875 percent of income to 7.5 percent of income in 2016, effectively wiping out almost all tax liability for individuals and companies that can claim the credit. The state’s corporate tax rate is 7.9 percent and the top individual tax rate is 7.65 percent.

The tax credit is available to farming and manufacturing companies, but also to business owners who file as sole proprietors, partnerships, LLCs or who own a stake in companies that pass tax liability to no more than 100 shareholders (known as “S corporations”).