Posted on 07/05/2015 1:01:39 PM PDT by conservativejoy
WEDC must be replaced
Gov. Scott Walker and Reed Hall, head of the Wisconsin Economic Development Corp.: Robert Kraig is calling for WEDC to be disbanded.
Associated Press
Gov. Scott Walker and Reed Hall, head of the Wisconsin Economic Development Corp.: Robert Kraig is calling for WEDC to be disbanded.
By Robert Kraig
May 27, 2015
The Journal Sentinel recently editorialized that the well-documented problems at Gov. Scott Walker's partially privatized jobs agency are primarily issues of "execution," and that the "concept" behind the troubled agency is "sound."
While there is virtually nobody left defending the performance of the Wisconsin Economic Development Corp., there is a pronounced tendency among elected officials and other opinion leaders to propose only piecemeal reforms. The various changes proposed so far by Walker, Republican legislative leaders and leading Democrats who serve on the agency's board do not address the root of the problem.
The problem with WEDC is more fundamental than incompetent staff, lax oversight, lack of transparency, slippery job creation claims and the troubling possibility that some corporations received loans and tax credits as political favors.
The root cause of WEDC's troubles is the very idea that Wisconsin's precious job creation dollars should be handed out to well-connected corporations with less public control and transparency. It has turned out that glib sounding words such as "flexibility" and "streamlined" used to justify the creation of WEDC really meant weak standards and little accountability.
Not only is Wisconsin lagging behind the rest of the country in job creation, the jobs being added in our state are mostly poverty-wage occupations, according to the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Center on Economic Development. The job quality crisis is so severe that the UW-Madison Institute for Research on Poverty recently found that poverty levels are increasing in Wisconsin even as employment increases.
To be fair, these are challenges facing other states as well and were not addressed by the old Department of Commerce, either. What is striking about WEDC is the lack of any comprehensive strategy to address the decline in family-supporting jobs.
Many of the practices attributed to bad management at WEDC are rooted in its approach to economic development. WEDC continues to allow corporations receiving public job creation dollars to outsource Wisconsin jobs, and stubbornly refuses to require proof that promised jobs are actually being created. WEDC's highly questionable job creation and retention claims are a product of an ideological assumption that what is good for corporations seeking state subsidies also is good for workers.
The only real solution to the scandal of WEDC is to close the failed agency, and replace it with a fully accountable public agency. I am not proposing returning to the old Department of Commerce, which under previous Republican and Democratic governors was administratively competent but also lacked a serious economic strategy.
WEDC should be replaced with a public agency with the explicit mission of dramatically increasing the number of family supporting jobs in Wisconsin, especially in the most economically challenged areas of the state where the gap between the number of workers and the availability of quality jobs is most severe. The agency's name should reflect its mission, something like the Department of Full Employment or the Department of Economic Opportunity.
This new job agency should be required to develop evidence-based strategies for rebuilding the middle class and opening it to all who are currently shut out. There should be clear benchmarks and reporting, so the people of the state can hold their state government accountable to this goal. There also should be rigorous accountability.
According to a recent report by the Pew Charitable Trust, since 2000, Wisconsin's middle class has shrunk more than any other state, and real median household income has declined a stunning 14.7%. This decline in job quality is damaging the entire economy. It's time to scrap the failed WEDC experiment, and begin to develop real strategies for building a 21st century economy that works for everyone.
Robert Kraig is executive director of Citizen Action of Wisconsin, a Milwaukee-based statewide membership group that advocates for a fair economy and guaranteed affordable health care. www.citizenactionwi.org
-——Robert Kraig is executive director of Citizen Action of Wisconsin
OMG You’re quoting a leading lefty group...
But Clark is right to point out that Citizen Action really doesn’t know what they’re talking about when it comes to investment, business, and how jobs are created.
http://www.rightwisconsin.com/dailytakes/212221831.html
Big Labor front group Citizen Action of Wisconsin tried to rig another election this week - but so far they are failing miserably.
http://www.rightwisconsin.com/dailytakes/236481391.html
The liberal smear machine is gearing up by launching costly and expensive fishing expeditions looking for dirt on every formidable conservative, from Scott Walker to State Rep. Leah Vukmir, who is running for state senate.
http://www.620wtmj.com/blogs/charliesykes/84406787.html
Hey, you really need to google Workers World Party, Daily Communist, and be sure to check Obama for America!
Lying and posting lefty sludge, well done my pet troll.
Link to Right Wisconsin I'm going to let you stew in your own juices for the rest of the night. I just finished Cruz's new book and am about to start Coulter's.
——The fact is, the loan did not get paid.
Wooohooo you are one poorly informed whacko troll. You know, when I remortgaged my house I skipped a payment to synch up to a new payment schedule?
——Although it seems like you’re “skipping” a month, what’s happening here is that the mortgage interest on the new loan is prorated from the day you close. -—
http://mortgageporter.com/2008/02/skip-two-mortga.html
Nobody went unpaid little girl.
——Wisconsin was 11th in job creation in 2010
Without a link its a lie.
-——it has fallen further to 44th.
Nope you lie, its 33d
Do you get dates?
Perhaps we should invite Jim Robinson to weigh in on the merits of posting union-backed lefty sites and denigrating conservative sites here at Free Republic.
That's an unfair portrayals of The Donald. He always takes the time to remind us how awesome he is too.
How have I denigrated conservative sites?
The link you requested is in post 102.
I am not the one who has resorted to name calling here. While you have called me names and been very rude, I have not responded in kind.
I think that Jim respects differences of opinion and wants there to be honest examination of where all the candidates stand. There is a lot at stake in this election. If we can’t have open discussion here, where will it occur?
You shouldn’t get so irate because someone disagrees with you. The truth will come out, hopefully, but trying to intimidate people through bullying is a weak position to take.
So, is this an admission that you have been spouting the “outsourced over 15,000 jobs” line here as if it were true fact, but you were really making it up?
Source it, or admit it is a lie.
I’m very sorry you don’t want to do your own research, but I recently retired and I am not going to do it for you. I don’t retract anything I have said. Deal with it!
You have lied repeatedly here my pretty troll. Participate honestly in these discussions and it won’t happen.
Just in the last few minutes you said that Wisconsin failed to pay a debt when it was simply an openly announced debt restructuring. Then you mis-tated the current WI unemployment rate. You insist that a normal budget forecast is a Walker disaster (just like all the lefties here in Wisconsin).
And you have never acknowledged the accuracy of any of my responses. Is that the kind of open discussion that you are looking for - where you can post bull**#) and not get called on it?
I told you I’m waiting for some honest discussion of candidates from you. You’ve brought up is WEDC which I have acknowledge is problematic. Are you going to wait for the results of the investigation or are you going to be like a lefty and convict Walker just because a lefty DA (who considered running for governor against Walker) opened it? Its so telling though that you post a leading LEFTY thug group’s post rather than Right Wisconsin.
You bring up the John Doe as if its alive and take the lefty’s side. You weren’t here when 100,000 socialist thugs occupied the Capital, when our Republican legislators were spat upon, manhandled and (along with Walker) threatened with death. You don’t know bullying. Walker truly is a ‘boy scout’ and that is proven by FIVE YEARS OF FRUITLESS INVESTIGATION by the fascists. You seem to approve of and join in their standard lefty smear procedures.
You seem to rely on only lefty sources of information when this is a conservative site. Jim doesn’t approve of that. You probably missed Jim’s post #9 on Walker, you were too busy lying. So perhaps you’d better be more careful.
The truth will out because I am forcing you to tell it. Sounds like Harry Truman; “”””I never did give anybody hell. I just told the truth and they thought it was hell.”””””. Why don’t you take a day or two, do some more in-depth research and come back and post some honest information instead of what you have been doing recently.
-—I am not going to do it for you. I don’t retract anything I have said. Deal with it!-—
What a typical lefty approach to honest discussion!
Ah yes, when caught lying, you try the old “don’t want to do your own research” dodge. Sorry, troll, that won’t work. I did research, and could only find one-tenth of what you were claiming. You are the one making a bold claim. Back it up or admit you are lying.
Honestly, you are being so Lame. When have I misstated the unemployment rate? You’re the only one bringing it up.
I have been discussing the WEDC and the poor ranking in job creation.
If Walker’s record is not a problem, you should just calm down. You sound rather hysterical and desperate for someone on solid ground.
Walker is announcing Tuesday, I believe, in Wausau.
One leg?
Concealed Carry..
Defunds Planned Parenthood
Expands School Choice
Reformed the Wisconsin DNR (our version of the EPA)
Defunding lefty University Potentates
Poor thing. You are going to be in meltdown when the debates start.
I certainly won’t flame you (or any Cruz fans for that matter).
More often than not articles like this allow the truth to come out which is beneficial.
Scott Walker should be praised for standing up to the unions and the efforts to recall him.
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