The Nicolet Bank Business Pulse has measured the opinions (the “pulse” if you will) of business owners for several years.

The Business Pulse is now expanding statewide. In addition to the 498 participants in the regional Pulses, another 134 business owners and CEOs are participating in the statewide Business Pulse.

Anyone who has read my opinions since 1994 (with the seven-year break from mid-2001 to early 2008) knows how I feel about the importance of Wisconsin business to Wisconsin. William F. Buckley Jr. once said if the choice was to be governed by the faculty of Harvard University or an equivalent number of names at the beginning of the Boston telephone book, he’d choose the latter. (I don’t think the fact he was a Yale graduate had anything to do with that.)

My corollary is that I’d rather be governed by the members of any chamber of commerce in this state, even Madison’s, than any equivalent number of state legislators, regardless of party. Compare the net positive impacts of business people to politicians; business people win by such a large margin that you can’t count that high. Compare the net positive impacts of business to labor unions, and the margin is larger. All that business does is pay people in salaries and employee benefits, provide products and services for their customers, purchase products and services from other businesses, and contribute, financially and otherwise, to the communities in which they have facilities.

Those who survey and poll as their livelihood will tell you that the larger the sample size, the better. So if you’re the ultimate decision-maker in a business, you can have your opinions counted (and find out the opinions of your peers) by signing up at http://stnorbert.us2.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_5q1oWxytxh7j55O. You can also pass on this item to your CEO/business owner/entrepreneur/person-who-makes-the-state’s-economy-go-and-contributes-positively-to-our-quality-of-life friends so they also can participate.