Wisconsin Getting Little Return On Subsidies To Business

Wisconsin has lost jobs five months in a row, so it's fair to ask what kind of return taxpayers are getting from $80 million in subdivides budgeted to help create and retain jobs.

You may remember that Gov. Walker gave business a direct hand in state-subsidized development by remaking the Department of Commerce into the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation, (WEDC), with millions of new taxpayer dollars - - while other public programs took cuts.

Here, from The Business Journal, is the heart of the plan:

WEDC wants to create 50,000 jobs.  Development corporation sets ‘ambitious’ goals to help draw firms. Armed with $80 million in state financial assistance for companies that generate jobs in Wisconsin, the Wisconsin Economic Development Corp. says it will retain or create 50,000 jobs by June 2012.

The bulk of those jobs will be derived from projects that maintain employment at companies already in the state, said Paul Jadin, the corporation’s chief executive officer. He predicts the corporation will contribute 20 percent to 25 percent of the 250,000 jobs Gov. Scott Walker has pledged to create during his four-year term, which would equate to 50,000 to 62,000 new jobs over four years.

Also of interest: more than 20% of the dollars targeted for business - - $17 million - - are federal funds from the Obama administration:

Funding is coming from multiple sources, the largest of which is state taxpayers via the general purpose fund at $34.4 million. The other top funding sources are: recycling surcharges on landfill operators, $23.2 million; federal Community Development Block Grants, $17 million; and the Commerce Department’s fiscal 2011 budget balance of $9.2 million.

Hasn't taking federal funds been something of a heresy among Walker and the ideologues he's installed in his cabinet?