Walker-chaired WEDC abandoned millions of public $$
[Updated] The expanding WEDC financial scandal, a propaganda mess, too, will morph into a greater but deserved image, political and executive burden for Walker-the-GOP-presidential wannabee because from the beginning the WEDC was more political, campaign and resume-building tool for Walker than job creating entity for the people.
And also in line for a political pounding: Our toothless GOP Attorney General Brad Schimel, afraid of his own shadow and even more intimidated by Walker's, so continues to look the other way from the executive incompetence - - already noted in Salon.com by Joan Walsh - - and political malfeasance spilling from Walker's office just across the Capitol hallway.
And enabling Walker to ready himself for a CYA-budgetary exit from the WEDC chairmanship and board presence in a few weeks - - though Walker is the only chair his agency and artifice-for-advancement ever knew - - so its entire failed, phony and politicized record is his responsibility.
Final thought, and not the first time I've said it:
Walker wants to drug-test people getting public aid. How about those WEDC recipients and the staffers who repeatedly shoveled out millions to ineligible and undeserving.
And also in line for a political pounding: Our toothless GOP Attorney General Brad Schimel, afraid of his own shadow and even more intimidated by Walker's, so continues to look the other way from the executive incompetence - - already noted in Salon.com by Joan Walsh - - and political malfeasance spilling from Walker's office just across the Capitol hallway.
And enabling Walker to ready himself for a CYA-budgetary exit from the WEDC chairmanship and board presence in a few weeks - - though Walker is the only chair his agency and artifice-for-advancement ever knew - - so its entire failed, phony and politicized record is his responsibility.
Final thought, and not the first time I've said it:
Walker wants to drug-test people getting public aid. How about those WEDC recipients and the staffers who repeatedly shoveled out millions to ineligible and undeserving.
14 comments:
What makes anyone think AG Brad Shimel has any integrity? Are you just being polite by stating he would prosecute Walker if he was not afraid?
Sorry, this is ridiculous on its face. Brad Shimel is just another republican tool to whom the rule of law means nothing if it benefits the out-of-state interests behind the republican party in Wisconsin. If it were true that it was only fear keeping Shimel from prosecuting Walker, we would have reason to hope that eventually there would be justice.
But it is wrong to assume that Shimel would do something if he was braver. Shimel is standing down because he supports Walker.
Here is the irony...in 2008 and again in 2009 I made the conscience choice of paying medical bills and ongoing medical treatments to keep my wife alive over paying my state taxes. I know some people will fault me for that, but I have made payments and have paid those taxes. Now, because of the predatory nature of the Department of revenue my "interest and penalty" balance is MORE than what my taxes were. So, as the job market in Wisconsin "works", my income is less than what I made in the year 2000. I have been lucky that I have I job, and my wife is doing OK, but the Department of Revenue won't budge on the amount "owed" to them, and when I read stories like this I see red. I've paid the back taxes, I've paid interest and penalty payments and what I've paid in so far is far and away more than what the original amount was. Does anyone else see the irony here?
Walker is a bum:
Irony? Better to describe as criminality. Laws don't apply to republicans when they are seeking office or in-power. But please stop and think for a moment. Us little people don't get hundreds-of-thousands or million dollar loans forgiven. More importantly, most politicians (of any party, but especially dem) cannot get daily propaganda in the media to distract, cover-up, and rationalize their criminality.
Walker can. So what does that mean? He continues to be groomed for something big as he is the ideal tool. In the White House, he will create an endless stream of distractions with the ridiculous things he says. The legislation & policies he will be put in the White House to enact will not come from him. His moron nature, which the media falsely proclaims to be "average joe" will become the focus of discussion and anger instead of the agenda and special interests he represents. This is the George WALKER Bush playbook and Bush didn't actually have to win any elections to be anointed President of the United States.
Should be very scary to contemplate. For the first time in U.S. history, we are being set up to have a President that professes his goals as "divide and conquer". This is bad when it's at the state level, but will be much worse at the national level, especially if Walker is in the White House with a republican legislature and SCOTUS.
One can only hope that the public will wake up and demand open, free, fair, transparent, and verifiable elections. We cannot defeat Scott Walker and his cohorts unless we have honest elections no matter who runs against him and what platform they campaign on.
I know some think it is crude, so I won't explicitely describe, but Scott Walker is just like that chimp on Monkey Island at the zoo tossing feces at you & your family and trying to urinate across the moat.
I should note - that after all I've paid in (including the taxes, interest, and penalty) my balance is STILL twice as much as what was originally owed.
Ban the comment above. This is the basement-dwelling troll that's trying to imitate me again (note the differences)
Isn't Brad Shimel the same dude that did a sweetheart prosecution on Jensen?
And the state does the same thing to father's who owe back support. They charge interest, add that to the total, and then charge interest on the interest they added to the total. Some don't think they will ever get caught up. And, I am not talking about the ones who choose to not pay support, but the ones who through no fault of their own are out of work or have had serious medical issues and simply do not have the money. Doesn't matter, it still just keeps on adding up with interest.
Then there are people like my husband who refused to send in taxes every three months saying that he would pay what he owed when taxes are filed. It doesn't work that way for the state. If you don't pay state taxes quarterly and owe at the end of the year, you get to pay an additional 10%. But, it's okay if the state takes your money and then sends you a refund. You don't get an additional 10% because they owed you, do you. I say that if people have the money and pay the full amount right away, no extra charge. If you cannot pay the full amount, then add on the 10%. Which still sounds horrible, but then you should do the quarterly payments.
DING! DING! DING! How do you think he got the GOP field cleared for his nomination?
And that's exactly why the Feds and Ismael Ozanne in Dane County have to be the ones to run the WEDC investigation
The feds nor Ozanne will do a meaningful investigation. They know that Scott Walker has wealthy backers that will litigate anything until the next century if needed. Ozanne likely just came forward because he needed to rehab his image after shamefully misrepresenting Madison Police Officer Kenny's 7th and obvious kill shot at Tony Robinson after he was neutralized, laying on his back, and had his feet up in the air with the souls of those feet pointing at the sky. You can all see this in the police cam videos that were released.
Do not expect to hear anything more from Ozanne. The Feds have been rumored to be investigating Walker since he took office and the FBI was part of a raid on Cynthia Archer's house. The Feds are not going to rescue us either. It will be up to Wisconsin voters to save the state, but that will demand:
1. Calling out the media propaganda that created Wisconsin's "divide-and-conquer" Governor, an outrageous way to describe an elected leader, but words Walker himself used to describe his ambitions.
2. Huge turnouts, historical numbers of voters getting involved in the process.
2. Free, open, fair, transparent, and verifiable elections.
What is the likelihood of achieving these three objectives?
Sadly, NIL. It may be that the only way Wisconsin moves on from Scott Walker's "divide and conquer" is when he steps-down from office to run for President, but he can do even more damage to us there and then we need to deal with Rebecca Fleischer. Sorry to sound so pessimistic, but there is no reason to be more optimistic given that our elections are tabulated on proprietary voting software and GAB will not even release ward-by-ward data (it is always aggregated into groups).
We know Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and the rest of the right-wing media echo chamber will not change. They are promoting Scott Walker at this very minute (I won't link to jsonline) as an "average joe" Harley guy you'd want to have a beer with.
And voter turnout? Well, without free, fair, open, transparent, and verifiable elections; we never actually accurately know who came out to vote. Voter ID will lower turnout for years until enough people get sick enough of Koch austerity for the masses that they jump through all the hoops.
Maybe I'm a bit slow on this one, but it just occurred to me why WEDC is refusing to hold an emergency meeting on Building Committee/Writeoffs/etc. If they wait until the next regularly scheduled meeting in July, Walker isn't chair anymore. Walker has already chaired his last WEDC Board meeting on April 30, before the Building Committee stuff heated up.
Also, the State Journal has more on the unauthorized CDBG funds routed thru WEDC in 2011-12, including the money quote:
"A HUD spokesman said the agency is continuing to review Wisconsin’s CDBG program, including the Morgan Aircraft loan."
http://host.madison.com/wsj/news/local/govt-and-politics/wedc-loan-to-aviation-company-unpaid/article_08cd4cfc-ec3d-58b5-9e71-b0e9f248868d.html
If it is federal money, the feds will come in, and taxpayers will have to pay the money back to the Feds.... This is stupid to write this stuff off.... their job is to go after it. Bankruptcy by the company, that's another story... let the courts handle it.... Handouts and lies, pure and simple. That is likely why there was so much turnover at the top.
Anon 11:49
The turnover is due to the fact that the Chief Financial Officers (who there have been 5 in the previous 4 years) have FIDUCIARY DUTIES to be resonably competent. They cannot claim "OOOPS! My bad!!" over ongoing screw-ups. The constant turnover does indicate that WEDC was never intended to be a legit thing and that the CFOs all knew this and knew they had to bail. If they didn't, they could be held personally liable everything.
The Board Chair, Scott Walker, also has fiduciary duties and should be held liable for the mess WEDC created. It is only the propaganda and disinformation in the media that prevents anyone from talking about this. For more, see link below:
http://www.bridgespan.org/Publications-and-Tools/Nonprofit-Boards/Nonprofit-Boards-101/Fiduciary-Responsibilities-Board-Members.aspx#.VXWZAs9Viko
Other service corporations like WEDC would never be allowed to lose millions of dollars over the years. The money isn't actually "lost", it has been stolen and the board and key officials are liable because of imposed fiduciary duties.
The money has been stolen and some of it laundered through campaign contributions to Walker and the PACs that support him.
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