“Walker’s WEDC”—what’s this thing?
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.