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Re: Scott Walker: more bad news 

By: clo in FFFT3 | Recommend this post (4)
Thu, 25 Jun 15 11:35 PM | 55 view(s)
Boardmark this board | Food For Further Thought 3 		Msg. 13716 of 65535
(This msg. is a reply to 13715 by clo)
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More bad news for Walker.

WEDC backed firm after learning state money was for luxury car debts
By Jason Stein and Patrick Marley of the Journal Sentinel June 25, 2015 1:05 p.m.

Madison — Officials at Wisconsin's top jobs agency sought federal tax incentives for a failing Milwaukee business for a year after being told that the owner was seeking the money to pay off business debts such as the leases on luxury cars.

Officials at the Wisconsin Economic Development Corp. worked to get that federal help for Building Committee Inc. even though a $500,000 loan it had given to the company had gone sour within months and the owner of the firm had provided false information to the state.

Top officials in Gov. Scott Walker's administration pushed to get Building Committee the initial loan and worked to get more for the company. But the jobs agency had to pass on giving the company more money from state taxpayers after finding numerous problems with the firm and being told that owner Bill Minahan was promising some of this second proposed loan to pay a leasing debt on cars such as a 2010 Maserati and a 2011 Nissan 370Z luxury sports car. 

Information about state officials' long-running attempts to find help for the troubled company are coming to light just as the Republican governor prepares to announce his bid for the presidency next month. Walker said this week he didn't think his jobs agency had cut any corners.

WEDC officials' alarm didn't stop them from persuading three counties to allocate $4.5 million for Building Committee from a federal program meant to spur energy conservation, according to hundreds of pages of emails and other documents recently released under the state's open records law. Those federal incentives were never used because even with the subsidies in hand Building Committee was unable to get the financial backing it needed to move forward with its project.

WEDC officials never told those counties about the concerns that had made them email each other with statements like "Yikes!" and "I can't believe we are actually going to do this" about earlier proposed help for Building Committee.

"I would hope that when you get a call from a Maserati dealership asking that taxpayer funds be put forward in order to pay off a loan for a Maserati, that the leader of the organization would issue a cease-and-desist order to stop any more dealings with the organization. That's not what occurred," said Assembly Minority Leader Peter Barca (D-Kenosha), who sits on the WEDC board.

WEDC spokesman Mark Maley said WEDC's help getting bonding authority for the project was a "moot point" because Building Committee was never able to get private financing to make the deal happen.

more:
http://www.jsonline.com/news/statepolitics/wedc-backed-firm-after-learning-state-money-was-for-luxury-car-debts-b99525593z1-309866451.html




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The above is a reply to the following message:
Scott Walker’s Jobs Program Didn’t Work
By: clo in FFFT3
Thu, 25 Jun 15 11:22 PM 		Msg. 13715 of 65535

Scott Walker’s Jobs Program Didn’t Work

Betsy Woodruff 06.25.155:15 AM ET

Why the Wisconsin governor’s job-creation agency annoys conservatives and liberals alike—and might be the trickiest thing for him to explain to 2016 voters.
Scott Walker, Wisconsin’s conservative governor, is reputed to be one of the most divisive politicians in America. But in one complicated situation, he’s brought people together: Wisconsinites of every political stripe agree that his cumbersomely named Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation, or WEDC, is a big mess.

Here’s the thing, though: WEDC has a complex history, and its short saga is a helpful example of the challenges governors face when looking to distill their records for non-wonky national audiences.

First, some quick background. In 2011, newly elected Gov. Walker replaced the Wisconsin Department of Commerce with a public-private partnership called (you guessed it!) the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation, or WEDC. Walker had won the gubernatorial race a few months prior by campaigning on a promise to create 250,000 new jobs in the state over the course of his first term. WEDC (commonly pronounced “weed-ick”) was supposed to help the state reach that goal and to trim some of the bureaucratic fat that existed in the commerce department.

But Wisconsin only got about 147,000 of those 250,000 promised jobs. And WEDC had some serious growing pains, to say the least. A May 2013 audit from the Legislative Audit Bureau had some troublesome findings, including that between 2011 and 2013, WEDC gave out $124.4 million in awards without formal staff reviews.

WEDC didn’t mandate staff reviews at the time, and the awards were all approved by the agency’s bipartisan board. Still, some of those awards went to companies that didn’t exactly handle them responsibly. For example, the Wisconsin State Journal reported that Building Committee Inc. got a $500,000 loan after falsely saying it hadn’t been sued for 5 years. It later defaulted on that loan and dissolved. And, as it turned out, the company’s owner had given $10,000 to Walker’s first gubernatorial campaign.

“According to WEDC, the 27 awards were tied to the creation of 6,165 jobs, but so far only 2,106 have materialized,” the State Journal said. “Many of the awards are tax credits contingent on certain job-creation goals being met.” (The biggest beneficiary of those awards was none other than Walker’s beloved Kohl’s Department Stores, which got a $62.5 million tax credit.)

Critics argue that WEDC over-promised and under-delivered, and they emphasize that some of the companies that benefited from those awards (like Building Committee Inc.) are, as the Chicago Tribune reported, affiliated with or owned by Walker donors.

more:

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/06/25/scott-walker-s-jobs-program-didn-t-work.html?via=newsletter&source=DDMorning

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