Breaking news: WI jobs agency wasn't confirming job creation claims
The Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation is a job-creating agency that keeps creating more scandal than jobs; the entire agency should be scrapped.
Basically, the WEDC - - the politicized job-creating agency Scott Walker invented and chaired throughout its existence until his presence created too much negative political publicity - - an agency that didn't necessarily follow state law, let alone basic accounting and management procedures, and failed from the get-go to create much more than half his repeatedly-promised 250,000 new jobs - - kept handing out public funds to businesses for job creation without verifying that the funding had, in fact, created jobs, according to the latest report on the scandal-ridden agency:
Imagine you learned that the doctors at your major public hospital were paid on a performance basis without the hospital verifying patient outcomes claimed by the doctors.
And it was disclosed hospital hadn't carried out diagnostic procedures and evaluations it was supposed to perform so patient treatment plans could be correctly written and evaluated.
Yet all the while hospital managers and the board of directors held up the entire operation as an ideological-correct, publicly-interested model of success as they applied for and received and spent more and more public funding.
WEDC spent and abused state and federal revenues, not to mention the public trust.
Where are the prosecutors?
Basically, the WEDC - - the politicized job-creating agency Scott Walker invented and chaired throughout its existence until his presence created too much negative political publicity - - an agency that didn't necessarily follow state law, let alone basic accounting and management procedures, and failed from the get-go to create much more than half his repeatedly-promised 250,000 new jobs - - kept handing out public funds to businesses for job creation without verifying that the funding had, in fact, created jobs, according to the latest report on the scandal-ridden agency:
The state's troubled economic development agency did not review crucial information in determining whether businesses receiving state incentives had created the jobs they had promised, auditors told lawmakers Wednesday.
State law requires the Wisconsin Economic Development Corp. to independently verify each year whether businesses created the jobs they said they would. Officials at the 4-year-old agency didn't do that for the first time until 2015, and even then did not look at wages paid or hour worked, nonpartisan auditors told legislators.This scandal in plain sight is now more than two years old, but there has been a grindingly perplexingly disconnect between disclosed agency failure and follow-through by law enforcement.
Imagine you learned that the doctors at your major public hospital were paid on a performance basis without the hospital verifying patient outcomes claimed by the doctors.
And it was disclosed hospital hadn't carried out diagnostic procedures and evaluations it was supposed to perform so patient treatment plans could be correctly written and evaluated.
Yet all the while hospital managers and the board of directors held up the entire operation as an ideological-correct, publicly-interested model of success as they applied for and received and spent more and more public funding.
WEDC spent and abused state and federal revenues, not to mention the public trust.
Where are the prosecutors?
4 comments:
Seriously what does it take to get the DOJ to investigate Wisconsin. Start with WEDC. Then Voter ID laws. John Doe I and II and Wisconsin's Supreme Court and other judges ruling to close down John Doe and DESTROY the evidence. Unconstitutional arrests made at the Capital. Election irregularities. DNR and environmental laws being ignored.
But Scotty says MAYBE we should consider, you know, criminalizing the fraud many of these companies used to misleadly apply and obtain public money.
Ol' Scooter must be pretty confident he is going to be hoisted into the White House by hook or crook so that he can demand the feds stand down.
But, sadly, Obama's DOJ has done an "outstanding" job standing down for all kinds of criminality -- that will be his real legacy and not his health-insurance-company-bail-out. Obama care is garbage and, if not fixed, will result in going back to the previous dysfunctional system.
Why do billionaires get behind insane repugs when there are dems that will do their dirty work?
This is trivial in the context of the waste and criminality going on at WEDC, but I noticed a change in the Journal-Sentinel's voice today:
"The state's troubled economic development agency did not review crucial information..."
All other recent stories from MJS have referred to WEDC as the state's "jobs agency" or "job-creation agency."
I noticed several times in today's hearing that both WEDC staff and WI Economic Development Association officials tried to ease off the emphasis on job-creation as a meaningful metric and recast "economic development" as some nebulous force for prosperity which may or may not involve increasing employment.
What do you think of this, James? Do you think today's new wording was intentional? Or is something like that likely just what happened to pop into the reporter's head?
Generally even the Feds just enforce by saying "pay back the money", if the company has not filed bankruptcy first. Demi and Reps alike cannot guarantee job creation actually happens. It's the quid pro quo of campaign or suppress financing that needs to be investigated. The judgement is related to whether "if not for the federal funds, this project would not happen",,, that is key to these projects.
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