WEDC arrogance sets stage for more unchecked taxpayer theft with Fox-con

You’d think the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation (WEDC) would be on its best behavior these days. WEDC had a hearing before the Joint Audit Committee this week to see if they had made any progress with their bad track record regarding taxpayer-funded handouts to GOP campaign contributors businesses. The meeting also came as there were a number of open questions lingering about a $3 billion incentive deal the state has with Foxconn, which WEDC is in charge of overseeing and signing a final contract with.

But instead, WEDC decided they didn’t need to answer any of those questions yesterday, and will continue to negotiate the details of the massive deal in secret.

Wisconsin's jobs agency will not alter its policies to make public a contract between the state and Foxconn before the deal is signed, Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation CEO Mark Hogan said Tuesday.

"We won’t be changing our process relative to when the contracts are available," Hogan told members of the Legislature's audit committee. "Any contract that WEDC signs is available to the public (once it is signed)."

Translation- that’s on a “need-to-know” basis, and you don’t need to know.

I happened to be watching some of the Joint Audit Committee meeting while I was racked up with a bit of a cold on Tuesday, and Hogan’s arrogance was obvious. When State Sen. Kathleen Vinehout brought up the recent headlines about millions that state taxpayers lost in a WEDC scam with Kestrel Aircraft in Superior, Hogan basically blew her off and said “That was five years ago, things are different now.”


Stop asking what we're doing with your money

Except that the LAB auditors said that things weren’t that different.

The committee met to discuss an audit released in May that found WEDC had improved its administration of grants, loans and tax credits but still could not accurately measure how many jobs it has created.

WEDC "cannot be certain about the numbers of jobs created or retained as a result of its awards," the nonpartisan Legislative Audit Bureau reported in the biennial review.

State auditor Joe Chrisman said Tuesday the primary areas in which WEDC has not complied with recommendations have been in verification and accuracy.

A member of the Jount Finance Committee noted the damning findings from yesterday.

The difference btwn #WEDC actual job creation & their planned was 14,744! WEDC job gap is larger than TOTAL number of #Foxconn jobs. Sad!

— Sen. Lena C. Taylor (@SenTaylor) October 24, 2017

There’s no way an honest person can defend the WEDC slush fund as a legitimate economic development organization anymore, and the fact that they and WisGOP refuse to reveal what caused the delay in getting the WEDC Board to approve a contract with Foxconn is a massive red flag. For crying out loud, they won’t even allow State Sen. Tim Carpenter to see the proposed contract ahead of time, and he’s one of the WEDC Board members that has to vote it!

Carpenter explained to the Wisconsin State Journal that the proposed WEDC contract could have left taxpayers on the hook for those billions if Foxconn didn’t live up to their end of the bargain.

WEDC board member Sen. Tim Carpenter, D-Milwaukee, declined last week in an interview with the Wisconsin State Journal to disclose details of why a scheduled vote on the contract was delayed. But he told the newspaper the issue was a “nuclear bomb” that would have left taxpayers exposed.

In an interview Tuesday with the State Journal, Carpenter offered more detail, saying Hogan told board members last week that the way the deal was structured the agency couldn’t guarantee it could protect taxpayers if the company violated the agreement.

“We could have given them all this money and we wouldn’t have been able to get it back,” Carpenter said.

If the Fox-con was legitimate, Walker and WEDC would be transparent with the taxpayers (who are paying these incentives), and letting them know the details every step of the way before they become law. In addition, they would allow the Joint Finance Committee the chance to ask questions and potentially change the terms of the incentive deal with Foxconn based on the changes in details that may come from this contract.

But instead, Walker, WEDC, and their WisGOP enablers feel that they are above public accountability, and don’t have to give the public any information about a Fox-con that the public could be left holding an empty bag on. It is a disgusting mentality, and the mark of a crony-driven Banana Republic, instead of a democracy that works for the average citizen.

When it comes to discussing WEDC and the Fox-con, I feel like doing a Joe Biden voice to sum things up.

“Come on folks, these are the same idiots that have lost tens of millions of dollars on deals that didn’t work, they can’t tell you how many jobs have been created, and they can’t tell you what the money went for. Why in the world would you trust them with handing out $3 billion of your tax dollars to a Chinese company with a history of lying about what they’re going to do? It makes absolutely no sense, people!”