Gov. Walker’s WEDC Doubles Down on Sending State Tax Dollars to Businesses Shipping Wisconsin Jobs Overseas

MADISON, Wis. — Gov. Scott Walker’s Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation (WEDC) responded to news reports revealing how they sent millions in tax credits to businesses that cut Wisconsin jobs and shipped work overseas not by apologizing, but by declaring they’ll do it again. One Wisconsin Now Executive Director Scot Ross said Walker’s WEDC giving state tax dollars to job outsourcers helps to explain how Wisconsin is last in the Midwest and lagging the nation in jobs, and ripped them for declaring they’ll continue to do it instead of fighting to recover state funds.

“Wisconsin is the worst in the Midwest and lagging the nation in jobs because Gov. Walker’s WEDC is simply incompetent,” said Ross. “How else do you explain that the agency charged with creating jobs in Wisconsin defends sending tax money to businesses that cut Wisconsin jobs and send them overseas, and then declares that they’ll do it again?”

Wisconsin is the worst in the Midwest in jobs because @GovWalker’s WEDC is simply incompetent

A media report on WKOW-TV in Madison detailed how two companies that received WEDC awards of state tax credits worth up to nearly $20 million subsequently laid off 279 Wisconsin workers and expanded their operations in Mexico and other overseas locations including China, Romania, Malaysia, Thailand, Germany and the United Kingdom. In response to the report a WEDC spokesperson declared, “we will continue to work with that company” and reward the business with state tax dollars, even if they have plans to send jobs overseas.

Ross noted that the latest example of the incompetence of Walker’s WEDC is just the latest in a series of outrages. A report by One Wisconsin Now that found 60% of WEDC aid went to contributors that have given a total of $1 million to Gov. Walker’s campaign. Scathing independent audits of Gov. Walker’s privatized economic development agency revealed that they lost track of millions of dollars in state funds, failed to follow basic accounting practices and spent tax dollars on liquor, tickets to sporting events and iTunes gift cards.

He concluded, “Gov. Walker is a career politician who has shown time and again that his political ambitions are what matter most to him. It’s no wonder that he seems to be more concerned about how WEDC pays off for himself with campaign contributions than in jobs for the people of Wisconsin.”