IF YOU APPROATE IT THEY WILL COME!

(Wisconsin State Journal, ABC 18 WQOW.COM, Wisconsin Reporter)

(Associated Press, Jackie Johnson, Frazer Chronicle)

 

Open for business, a sign a person usually considers as an advertisement for a new brake shop, or a Joe the Mechanic shop, or one of those paint shops that seem to be popping up all over the place. Usually the advertisement isn’t equated to a governmental program, or to announce that a state is actively searching for new business. It seems a bit unprofessional, kind of like the scantily attired blond bombshell that’s holding up are car wash sign at the mall.

 

I remember when I was driving for a living, coming up over a hill on I-74 in Kentucky, driving east towards West Virginia when I saw a sign that proclaimed that West Virginia was Open For Business!  I was at first kind of dumb-struck, wondering exactly who would put that kind of state entry sign up. I then commenced to giggle…..almost uncontrollably, and then, when I got close enough to read who initiated the sign, I burst out in laughter, the sign was authorized by the governor.

 

Joseph “Joe” Manchin wasn’t a car salesman, but he was close, his father owned a carpet store, and his grandfather a grocery store. Manchin worked in his father’s and grandfather’s businesses, where obviously he learned and honed his advertising skills. Manchin left the governorship in 2010 after winning a Senate seat, and the new governor, Earl Ray Tomblin promptly removed the Open For Business sign. I can find no information on whether the advertisement worked.

 

We now move to 2011, and Wisconsin Act 7, which created the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation, (WEDC) as the states lead economic development organization. WEDC is not a state agency, became fully operational in July of 2011. It is statutorily required to develop and implement economic programs that provide support, expertise, and financial assistance to firms that are investing and creating jobs in Wisconsin, as well as programs that support new business start-ups and business expansion and growth in the state.

 

WEDC is funded almost entirely with taxpayer dollars, but is exempt from some statutory requirements that apply to state agencies, it does remain subject to some reporting and oversight provisions. That fact, subject to some oversight provisions, makes me feel so much better, especially since WEDC spent an estimated $80.1 million dollars in (FY) 2011-2012. I don’t know about you, but I get nervous whenever politicians or (FY) reports use the word, (estimate) it always seems to be a scape-goat word.

 

Current Governor Scott “Sleepy” Walker chairs the WEDC which I find strange, because he ran his campaign on creating 250,000 new jobs, and here he is chairing the very organization that is at the vanguard of creating jobs.

 

Where do budget proposals for the WEDC come from…..you guessed it, Scott Walker, and we’re not talking chump change here, unless you’re talking about $518 million chump change.  The 2011-2012 economic development awards were, tax credits, $110.8 million, grants, $41.3 million, loans, $20.5 and bonding authorization, $346.4 million.

 

According to reports filed by the Audit Bureau, WEDC failed to follow proper book-keeping practices, there was no sufficient policies in place to administer grants, loans and tax credit programs. There also was no policy in place to deal with delinquent loan amounts. In addition the Audit Bureau found some loans by WEDC ineligible recipients, ineligible projects, and for amounts that exceeded limits specified in its own polices!

There was a lack of invoices or other contractually required documentation showing that authorized costs were incurred for 7 of 29 grants and loan awards that the Audit Bureau reviewed. Also four contracts executed through Jobs Tax Credit programs allocated four businesses a total of $906,000 in tax credits for job creation and employee training that had occurred before the contracts were executed.

 

And of course the old sorry I didn’t submit that paperwork story, it’s almost as bad as “my dog eat my homework” excuse. The audit review also has shown 14 grants or loans for which the recipients had spent all awarded funds as of December 2012. Information provided by WEDC showed that 12 recipients had not submitted the statutorily required verified financial statements.

 

I COULD GO ON…..I HAVE THE REST OF THE DAY

There is more information that has been released by the Audit Bureau, but it would only make for a stronger argument to really investigate the WEDC and why exactly Walker is running such a slip-shod corporation. But I find that some of the most important information for the Audit Bureau is either incomplete or missing all-together. Like no reports on the success on 10 of 30 WEDC programs…..that is a third of the corporations overall programs.

 

Financial and personnel management, no policies in place to address accountability with regards to effective management of its taxpayer funds, or to purchase goods and services through a better search for both items. There also were no personnel policies that governed the activity of corporation employees until September of 2012, a year and more after the corporation came into existence.

 

You know it’s funny…..not ha ha funny, that politicians that run almost outside of government business follow a kind of rule of thumb, they embrace the approach of “if it gets me to my goal, it sounds good to me”.

 

Now Sleepy, (Walker) is calling for an entire meeting…..behind closed doors, to discuss with the Audit Bureau to satisfy any questions that they might have and to address them, fix the situation, and move on. Kind of like the fox in the henhouse saying he won’t touch the hens. Government governing themselves….. (Gee Scotty, that never works), or don’t you read the newspapers.

 

Oh oh, here comes the fed, in August 2012 the United States Department of Housing and Development called out WEDC, admonishing them for mishandling millions of dollars in federal grant money, and finally in October WEDC admitted it had failed to keep track of more than $8 million in unpaid loans to 99 Wisconsin businesses.

 

Of course several local business in Milwaukee, the Milwaukee 7, jumped to the defense of the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation, how could they not, Washington, Ozaukee, Milwaukee, Racine Kenosha, Walworth, and Waukesha, are all nestled comfortably close to Madison, and Governor Walker, who used to work for Milwaukee.

 

Yes, Wisconsin is open for business…..and calling its own shots with all sorts of taxpayer money…..not only for the state of Wisconsin, but nationally from HUD. Somewhere somebody should have ran the red flag up the pole when Paul Jadin, Executive Director resigned after just over a year on the job. What followed after Jadin left was all sorts of funny business practices that has lead to where the corporation is today…..or is Jadin simply a convenient scape-goat, and does the problem go right to the top?

 

HAVE A NICE DAY!