On Friday afternoon, the Walker gang did a news dump, revealing that the corrupt Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation, which Walker created and has chaired, was responsible for handing out more than $124 million to Wisconsin businesses without any formal staff review. Please see the diary by Jake formerly of the UP on this. Since hearing about this, I have had the feeling that this outrageous episode of incompetence and cronyism might just be the thing that finally exposes Scott Walker as the criminal he is.
But I have seen little follow-up to the Friday story in any major news outlet. But the Chicago Tribune did cover it in this story: "Scott Walker's Wisconsin jobs agency gave out $124 million without review"
Such blatant corruption is now there for all to see:
Documents detailing the awards were made public late Friday afternoon in advance of a Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation board meeting on July 20 to discuss one troubled unsecured loan that went to a failing company owned by a Walker donor.
The Republican Walker, who is expected to formally launch a presidential campaign in mid-July, has been hounded by troubles with the quasi-private jobs agency he created shortly after taking office in 2011.
An internal review released Friday showed that WEDC gave out 27 award contracts to 24 companies between July 2011 and June 2013 without staff review, which WEDC said was not required at the time. Those were discovered during a review of 371 awards WEDC made in its first two years of operation.
Keep in mind that this was all carried out under Walker's
direct oversight:
Of the 27 awards, just over 6,100 jobs were expected to be created, but to date only about 2,100 have been. Nearly 8,900 jobs have been retained, according to WEDC. The projects made about $490 million in investment, the report said.
One of the 27 unsecured awards was a $500,000 loan to the now-defunct Milwaukee construction company Building Committee Inc. that was collapsing at the time and created no jobs. That was among several loans questioned by state auditors that led Walker in May to call for scrapping the loan program.
Incredibly, the Sunday
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has nothing on the story, nothing since its
Friday story. The Sunday
Wisconsin State Journal in Madison has nothing.
The incompetence on display is incredible. One wonders if any of the other Republican nomination contenders will do what the Wisconsin media are not doing: grab on to this and bring fresh air and sunlight to the political cesspool that Scott Walker has created.
11:36 AM PT: I wrote this diary quickly to keep the story alive, and to help it spread. Didn't expect it to end up on the rec list, so thanks. But I have a commitment this afternoon and won't be able to respond. Please carry on!
UPDATE: Let's hope the momentum picks up on this: Green Bay Senator Hansen Calls for Closure of WEDC:
State Senator Dave Hansen (D-Green Bay) called for the closure of the troubled Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation (WEDC) today after it was revealed that WEDC officials failed to perform critical underwriting for $124.4 million in taxpayer supported loans it made to 27 companies.
...
“WEDC has been an unmitigated disaster from the start. It has been one scandal after another, squandered millions of dollars and failed to produce any significant numbers of jobs,” said Hansen a longtime critic. “There is no way to justify its existence any longer. It is time to end WEDC. It is beyond repair and the taxpayers deserve better.”
