The WEDC is an agency created by Walker as soon as he was elected Gov. to replace the Commerce Dept.in Wisconsin. It stands for Wisconsin Economic Development Corp. This agency was Chaired by Gov. Walker until last week when Audit problems prompted the State Legislature to remove him from that position.
The agency has paid 975 million tax dollars to businesses that were supposed to create jobs, 60% of them owned by Walker donors. The money was issued in the form of loans that have not been repaid and many have been either written off or forgiven.
The result has been that these businesses have actually outsourced jobs overseas, losing two jobs for every one job created. The net loss is that Wisconsin has actually lost over 7000 jobs as a result of WEDC’s mismanagement.
Wisconsin is last in job creation in the Midwest and 38thin the nation. It is 50th in new business startups. Add that to the projected 2 billion dollar budget deficit this fiscal year and you have to wonder why Walker supporters wish to take his fiscal policies nationwide. I think they must be ignorant of the facts.
Currently the WEDC audit has been turned over to a prosecutor late last month and he is investigating the issue. There have been some charges that the payouts and the timing look suspiciously like “Pay to Play”. GOP legislators are concerned and there have been some calls for a federal investigation as well.
I have subscribed to the Wisconsin State Journal, a Conservative newspaper in Madison, to monitor the situation.
20 million in loans, 2 written off, 5 forgiven (terms unknown), etc. Full report here: http://legis.wisconsin.gov/lab/reports/13-7full.pdf Not unusual for that kind of portfolio. The 60% number is a liberal talking point and not verified, not in the audit I just linked nor any reliable source.
Currently the WEDC audit has been turned over to a prosecutor late last month and he is investigating the issue.
Not turned over, picked up by a partisan DA wanting his own tilt at the Walker windmill. That doesn't mean we should ignore that investigation, far from it, post any facts that you find (i.e. they should link to a reliable source).
GOP legislators are concerned and there have been some calls for a federal investigation as well
Mainly accurate although some of those GOP legislators think it can be fixed, others regret voting for it. The calls for federal involvement are strictly partisan.
IOW, the 60% number comes from political enemies of Walker. There is probably a sizable percentage that have some donor connection, no matter how small or tenuous, but we don't know that percentage and we especially don't know if it is unrepresentative (i.e. donors got priority)
I have provided the sources and article after article on this to Palmer. He has his opinion and refuses to believe even factual math. Anyone can calculate from a list of Walker donors and the total amounts contributed equals 60% of the money spent by WEDC.
He is pouncing on the fact that Ozanne is the prosecutor assigned to this. His boss is a Walker appointee. There is simply no way to spin this. The time of donations and payouts do not look good, but if you completely remove any corruption from the equation, you still have epic mismanagement and waste of taxpayer dollars for the embarrassing net loss of -7,000 jobs. When Walker starts spouting that he is on the side of the American Worker, think about those thousands of jobs that were outsourced by his donors companies that he paid millions to create jobs, I’ll bet the people who lost their livelihood don’t think he was on their side.
Walker’s fiscal failure overall should be a serious issue since we are going to need a lot of repair to our economy.