Questions about WEDC are dogging Scott Walker
Oh, yeah, the normally Scott Walker-subservient Republican Legislators who infest majorities in the Wisconsin State Legislature have told us all we need to know about how bad things are with WEDC by
booting Walker out as the head of his own creation. The vote took place in the powerful Joint Finance Company and will be readily passed in both Legislative Houses shortly.
The latest audit was another bombshell in the history of the agency created by Walker in 2011 to "create jobs". Walker has "created" only 129,000 new jobs in Wisconsin despite his campaign promise to create 250,000 (yeah, that's kind of what happens when you ruin a state economy).
A Little History is Needed
When he bought the Governors seat in 2010 with $100 million in Koch money, one of Scott Walkers first actions (yes, budget gutting and union busting did come first) was to get rid of Wisconsins' Department of Commerce. Instead, he set up a quasi-private agency called the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation (WEDC). He appointed himself to chair the agency.
Right from the start, WEDC started to smell as cronies were hired, loans and subsidies were given to businesses (mostly Scott Walker donors), and transparency was virtually eliminated. Later audits discovered that nobody, I mean NOBODY, was monitoring the results of all those tens of millions of dollars in taxpayer money.
WEDC routinely lost track of loans it made, whether loans were repaid, or whether any jobs had been "created" as required by those loans and subsidies. In short, they basically gave the money out as gifts to predominantly Walker donors. They routinely "wrote off" those loans.
Audit after audit shows the same corruption and the latest one tells of WEDC giving the money to a failing construction company (Walker donor) that fails and then WEDC lost (claims they can't find) any of the original loan payments. After the shit hit the fan again, Walker declared WEDC would simply stop giving loans (frankly, I think Walker donors have had enough pay back for their "investments" in him).
Of course!
Now that the Brief History is Done, On with the Story
In an attempt to put more oversight on the state's fledgling job-creation agency, Republican legislators voted to remove Gov. Scott Walker as chairman of the Wisconsin Economic Development Corp.
Naturally, Republicans are now claiming that Walker has asked to be removed, but it sounds more likely that he's another rat jumping off a sinking ship. Questions about WEDC and their history of funny business have swirled around Walker since the latest audit done last week.
They've also lost Christian Schneider, notorious right winger who writes guest editorials for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. In a recent editorial he suggested that Republicans scrap WEDC. That had to hurt.
But Walker isn't even here. I suspect he comes home just long enough to drop off his dirty laundry. And his status as an absentee landlord is showing as Republicans, generally unified and following his orders, are scrapping with each other.
Democrats noted Walker was not in Wisconsin for the vote, having joined presidential candidates in Oklahoma City to address the Southern Republican Leadership Conference. His spokeswoman, Laurel Patrick, said Walker supported his removal from the board.
Yes, he's out campaigning and trying to dodge WEDC questions. With such obvious corruption, it's red meat for the media following the Republican Presidential wanna-bes.
Democratic Legislators have asked both US Attorneys in Wisconsin as well as the Department of Justice for an independent investigation into WEDC.
Stay tuned.
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Sorry about the brief diary. I was just leaving the computer for dinner when I saw this story break.
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UPDATE:
I'm not sure when they did it, but I suspect WHY they did it. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has CHANGED the headline for the first linked article. The original headline, now gone, was something like "GOP Lawmakers Boot Walker from Jobs Agency" or something like that.
The new headline highlights their restoration of cuts to the Senior Care Program - a much nicer headline to hide bad news for Walker.
This is not the first time JS has changed a headline. They did it THREE TIMES to a headline that showed terrible employment numbers coming from the Bureau of Labor Statistics just before the recall election. Their final headline actually questioned the accuracy of the BLS report.
When the newspaper is on the stands tomorrow morning or gets delivered to home subscribers, people won't be alerted by the headline to the ACTUAL news inside the article. Instead, they'll think "good thing" that those brutal cuts were reversed and move along to the sports page.
It's clearly shameless pandering to Walker, pressure from his staff (campaign or government - actually Walker uses them interchangeably - see John Doe 1), pressure from Walkers supporters, or pressure from their owners. Take your pick - headlines don't change themselves.
UPDATE 2:
Enjoy this blog post on the topic, too.