Posted on 05/24/2015 11:46:40 AM PDT by Laissez-faire capitalist
During the 2010 campaign for governor, Scott Walker promised to create 250,000 jobs in his first term.
Toward this end, one of his first acts as governor was to privatize the state's economic development agency. Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation (WEDC) opened its doors in July 2011. After a series of damning audits, which highlighted mismanagement and incompetence, and news reports of special treatment for Walker donors, on Monday Democratic state lawmakers called for a federal investigation of the scandal-plagued entity.
Walker is the Chairman of the Board
When walker created WEDC in 2011, he named himself Chairman of the Board.
Although it was a privatized agency, WEDC was in charge of a staggering amount of taxpayer dollars: $519 million in bonds, loans, grants and tax credits in 2011-2012 alone; and the WEDC board is ultimately responsible for those dollars. While experts debate the role state government plays in job creation, one set of jobs Walker can more precisely lay claim to are those created by the economic development corporation board he governs.
In 2012, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel broke the story that WEDC had lost track of $12 million in loans because it never asked businesses to pay them back. ...
A damning 2013 audit by Wisconsin's professional, nonpartisan, state audit bureau made headlines when it documented dozens of ways in which the new agency was breaking the law. ...
WEDC promised to clean up its act and reported to the legislature and the state audit bureau in October 2013 it had addressed all the concerns raised in the May 2013 audit.
But a new May 2015 state audit [link at URL] shows the situation is even worse.
WEDC Can't Account For Jobs Created and Isn't Even Trying
...
(Excerpt) Read more at prwatch.org ...
If taxpayer money was involved it’s neither private nor free market.
L
Sorry, but that is wrong. PRWatch.org is run by the "Center for Media and Democracy" which is a liberal anti-Walker organization.
There is no message. You are simply posting lies from "Center for Media and Democracy" which is an anti-Walker organization. Post something from a reputable source and I will look at it.
“Post some facts from a reputable source, then we will talk.”
I am sure the author can quote CAP folks, MM folks, and all DNC talking points....
All of these economic development agencies/departments/offices etc are corporate welfare.
Ours in Michigan (MEDC) is fixin to collapse in the face of our road funding crisis.
I read somewhere that the problems stem from procedures set in place before Walker privatized it, but he didn’t do anything to change how it worked.
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Republican Gov. Greg Abbott began dismantling a flagship initiative of his predecessor Thursday, saying he will abolish Rick Perry’s pet program that gave $200 million in taxpayer dollars to Texas startups and was beset by bankruptcies and questionable claims of success.The decision was not surprising. Abbott signaled throughout his campaign that the Texas Emerging Technology Fund troubled him ideologically, but problems with the decade-old program ran deeper than new Republican distaste for governments “picking winners and losers” in the private sector.
Texas lost tens of millions of dollars investing in failed high-risk startups and the fund’s inner workings were largely kept from public view. An Associated Press investigation last year revealed undisclosed troubles with state-funded companies that had stagnated, didn’t file tax reports and made questionable job-creation claims.
continued here http://kxan.com/2015/01/29/abbott-seeks-to-end-emerging-technology-fund/
We saw this last time with hit piece after hit piece on conservatives. Granted no conservative is perfect. In the end we had Romney. You would think that Cruz supporters (which I could myself among) would have better things to do than post trash like this.
It is because the prevailing thought was Proposition 1 would pass. having gone to city, Village and County meetings the leadership believed it would pass and the Stae would have increased revenue. The tea leave readers missed this one. In the county I live in 86% voted no!
Well, duh.
A good capitalist would seek and obtain across the board tax cuts and deregulation.
Applying equally to all, not just those in position to buy favors.
Jeb Bush “privatized” the department my workout buddy is employed by. Instead of laying off the state workers they made them all supervisors of the private employees now doing their old jobs. His job is to listen into their telephone conversations and rate them. He said, “Nobody knows if I do my job and apparently nobody cares.” Amazingly, it did get cheaper, he thinks that as people retire they aren’t replaced and that’s where the savings comes in.
I was working in private industry and he in the government when PC’s came in and the typing pool existed. Honeywell laid off all the typists within a month. My state buddy said that the typing pool employees stayed on for years with many of them reading novels at their desks. They either found other work or retired.
This is how government works.
That’s it! Walker is toast! I can’t support him anymore! He has lost my money and my vote! Sound familiar? (btw, I am a Cruz person)
I’ve googled this and several Watch Dog organizations are reporting the same problems found in these audits. Few jobs have been created, but Scott’s political allies score Big Taxpayer dollars.
During the 2010 campaign for governor, Scott Walker promised to create 250,000 jobs in his first term. Toward this end, one of his first acts as governor was to privatize the state's economic development agency. Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation (WEDC) opened its doors in July 2011... on Monday Democratic state lawmakers called for a federal investigation of the scandal-plagued entity... In 2012, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel broke the story that WEDC had lost track of $12 million in loans because it never asked businesses to pay them back.Still any coverage in the MJS about Solyndra and countless other "stimulus" money-laundering operations? ACORN? How about Holder's gun-running? Sharpton's tax evasion? Kerry's? Waters'? Rangel's? How about the corruptions of Pelosi, Reid, Feinstein...? Anything? A peep?
The author, Mary Bottari, writes for The Nation, The Huffington Post and tweeted today in favor of the Robin Hood Tax.
These people know as much about free markets as ISIS knows about First Communion.
But, it is always nice when FReepers post this tripe, doing the dirty work of their liberal masters.
Maybe when Mary Bottari writes an article about Ted Cruz’s Golman Sachs wife, we can post it as PROOF that Ted is unsuitable for office.
Weak-minded fools, like the original poster and many others posting here, would believe it.
Then you need to post those sources so we can evaluate how complete and reputable they are.
So, you post this liberal hit piece and then summon all the Cruz supporters to post....in hopes of what? Destroying Walker?
Is that your goal to elect Ted Cruz? Destroy other conservatives?
Oh, yeah, you probably think Walker is not a conservative.
Funny, how you and your playgroup ignore Walker’s record as governor and, instead, choose to post twisted sound-bites, and liberal accusations as substance.
I know nothing about this program and would not trust this particular source as to the reporting of fact.
But I *do* know, based upon the governments own figures, that less than 30% of any welfare dollar ends up in the hands of welfare recipients. The balance is spent in administrative costs. Nobody who accuses the government of tremendous waste based upon those numbers is listened to, to any extent. There is lots of blame cast at “welfare cheats” and of course, then the topic gets changed to how racist the person is who made such a horrific accusation.
The whole notion of the government “creating jobs” is code for some cadre of priveleged insiders gaming the system, and I wish it wasn’t the point of departure of any serious discussion about anything on FR. It isn’t. It’s a fiction.
You are mistaken if you think you are helping Cruz with this post.
Ted Cruz remains the only true Conservative in this race.
~~Cruz, OR LOSE~~
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.