Friday, September 19, 2014

Walker's WEDC Bosses get hefty salaries, Don't give out Loans, and actually wrote off Overdue Taxpayer Loans.

The Governor and Chairman of the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation Scott Walker is proving to be one heck of a bad boss. From a press Rep. Peter Barka press release:
Today the nonpartisan Legislative Audit Bureau released a financial audit of the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation (WEDC) that highlights the agency’s continued shortcomings. The report shows that the agency had top-heavy administrative and salary costs, stalled in its job creation programs, and dealt with overdue loans by writing them off. The audit revealed that WEDC has made only meager increases to its loan activities,

“The audit demonstrates that WEDC is significantly underperforming. Not only are they unable to get economic development funds out the door and document their spending, but they have given up on executing key loan collection functions of the agency,” Assembly Democratic Leader Peter Barca (D-Kenosha), said.

WEDC grant expenditures decreased 2.8 percent at the same time that administrative expenditures increased by more than a third (34 percent). In the midst of the Great Recession, Governor Walker and Republicans essentially wiped out the state’s job creation agency overnight, and replaced it with a semi-private corporation with virtually no planning for the transition. Today’s audit shows that WEDC continues to scramble to put basic accountability measures and fiscal controls in place.

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