Sunday, October 21, 2012

WEDC: Walker's Economy-Destroying Cronies

Since it's creation, the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation has been an utter disaster and a joke, much like the rest of Walker's initiatives. That's not really much of a surprise since the concept has been a failure where ever it's been tried.

Sadly, Scott Walker is unable to learn from his own mistakes, much less the mistakes made by others, and so went headlong into creating this mess.

Some examples from just the past year include:
  • In February, Walker used WEDC to announce a land giveaway scheme to try to lure businesses to Fitzwalkerstan. How's that working out? So far we have less businesses and less jobs.
  • In July, Walker and WEDC got caught trying to do some bid rigging with a company called Skyward. When caught, Walker said: "As soon as our office learned of it, we put a stop to it." Yeah, that's the same thing he said about Walkergate.
  • Just a month ago, as WEDC was touting their new slogan of "In Fitzwalkerstan"*, they were also getting slammed by the Feds for illegally handing out grants. To make things even worse, Walker was caught trying to cover up the problem from the board itself.
As one might imagine, given Walker's pattern of behavior, things went from bad to worse in relatively short order.

It's now come out that WEDC has lost track of some $69 million in loans, with $9 million of them being overdue. The reason they lapsed on following these loans was because no one was hired to do so!

And just like Walker, WEDC made things worse by covering up this problem while in front of an audit committee hearing:
The loans were not mentioned by WEDC officials at a lengthy audit committee hearing Thursday on transparency and accountability in the agency. Sen. Kathleen Vinehout (D-Alma) said that she would consider bringing those officials back before the committee and that she was certain that a Legislative Audit Bureau report due next spring would delve into the issue.

"It's infuriating," Vinehout said.
In a futile effort to try to get things to blow over, Walker announced that he would appoint someone from the private sector to head up this agency until another private agency went head-hunting for a new director.

Laughably, Walker contended that these moves were being made to remove politics from the position and make it more accountable.

Yet the interim director that Walker appointed is Reed Hall, a member of Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce (WMC). WMC, an member of ALEC, spent tens of millions of dollars, if not hundreds of millions of dollars, over the last few years to bring us the likes of Walker, David Prosser, the Fitzgerald Boyz, and Mike Gableman, just to name a few.

And now we're supposed to believe that politics were removed from the system? If anything, they now have an even stronger hold on it.

Walker also promised that he would make "dramatic moves" to improve the performance of the agency.

I can't imagine anyone who is foolish and inane enough to think that anything short of the abolishment of the program will improve it. Well, except for those like Owen Robinson, who is goofy enough to unquestioningly believe whatever AFP says:
Clearly this agency has been poorly run. The concept is good, but the management has been terrible. I’m happy to see that Walker is taking it seriously. What this agency needs is a real businessman to run it.
Folks, it ain't gonna get better until we take the state back, starting in two weeks. What are you doing to get the vote out?

*I wonder how much they spent for that less than brilliant slogan and even worse logo.  The only place these fools should be "in" is in prison.

5 comments:

  1. No surprise. IMO, at their core those leading the Republican party these last many years are all Death Cultists. The more crap you destroy (or threaten to destroy, or write a "Roadmap" for destruction) the more you advance within their clubhouse hierarchy. Walker ruins a bunch of crap in WI, they all talk about him as president material. Jindal, Governor of the second most miserable state in the U.S, gets elevated to run the RGA. Ya rilly. He can lead the Party's efforts to make us ALL the most miserable. Equality Republican style. Anyways, I guess they all like the way he's handling the massive destruction down in Bayou Corne. (i.e. doing nothing and pointing no fingers and playing dumb and suppressing media)
    Look it up - it's friggin' sad (and scary). And it's a perfect illustration of the kind of regulation-free, carpetbagging business model they want, like Walker has set up with his free-wheelin' and obviously corrupt WEDC. And like (exactly like) the "self-policing" Frac Sand Industry (run by Texans) here in WI.
    And re: Owen, wtf, the WEDC is Walker's baby, if it sux, that reflects directly immediately and inextricably on WALKER. What ever happened to the good old-fashioned idea that the Captain takes responsibility for his crew?
    But hey, if O'Rob wants a "real businessman" how about those porta-potty Kleefisch buddies who spread human sh*t all over southern WI? They seem to have a really good grasp of the basic philosophy in play here.

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  2. When former Green Bay mayor Paul (I-I Know Nut-tink) Jadin announced his resignation as head of WEDC, he said the agency needed more oversight. The agency he was leaving, as its head, needed more oversight because it lost track of money he said. I guess that wasn't his fault, especially since he was now calling for the oversight. "Not me, not me," THEY need oversight. Another walker crony deserving investigation.

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  3. Look, this is OUR money they are losing while telling your public servants and your schools that the state is "broke." It may seem futile, but keep contacting your state reps and tell them that the WEDC experiment needs to be over. Go back to a public Dept. of Commerce with full public transparency and oversight.

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  4. Scott Walker reminds me of Rod Blagojevich. Both are arrogant and show stupidity in how blatantly they demonstrate their corruption seeking to use their power for quid pro quos from those ready to pony up cash for their political war chests.

    A Federal prosecutor is appropriate to investigate the WEDC shenanigans. Blagojevich would still be Illinois governor were it not for U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald investigating Illinois corruption. Does anyone know how to call in the Feds to stop these corrupt crooks from stealing more money from Wisconsin taxpayers?

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  5. Where is imustbearacist?

    Surely, this WEDC thing is completely defensible, so I would hope imustbearacist would chime in tell us how this is good news.

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