WEDC Invests in Scott Walker’s Political Future

Gov. Walker Doesn’t Care About Jobs

Scott Walker doesn’t care about creating jobs. Yes, I know, he promised to create 250,000 jobs in Wisconsin, but we all know that hasn’t happened. Now, we also know that he doesn’t really care. How do we know this?  We know it because he has not bothered to supervise the agency that he created for that purpose, or so he said.

The Post-Crescent ran an article on May 10, 2013 headlined “State Job Agency Put on Legislative Notice.” It was the latest in a series of articles describing the results of an audit of The Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation (WEDC). The article says that the audit found that, “WEDC did not follow state law or adequately track loans it awarded. … the agency also sometimes gave money to companies that didn’t quality for tax breaks.” The article goes on to say, “… the audit said WEDC claimed its efforts created or saved 5000 jobs. But the audit said WEDC received only 45 percent of required progress reports from award recipients and didn’t verify any of the information.”

We Know He Doesn’t Care About Jobs Because He Didn’t Track Progress in Creating Them

It is one of the most basic principles of management that if you want to make something happen, you have to track its progress, but Gov. Walker was perfectly happy to allow tens of millions of dollars to be spent with no adequate oversight or reporting. There could be no more convincing demonstration of his priorities. He cares about giving tax money to businesses, but he doesn’t care what they do with it.  If he had cared about jobs or anything connected with the economic development of our state, he would have insisted on receiving detailed reports.  If the reports didn’t demonstrate that WEDC was successful in creating jobs, he would have wanted to know why, and he would have insisted on whatever changes were needed to make the program a success. But he didn’t do any of that.

Gov. Walker Cares About Building Business Support For His Political Career

So, if Gov. Walker doesn't care whether the companies that received the money created jobs or contributed anything to our state’s economic development, what does he care about?  I suggest that he cares about building political support among the recipients of the money.  I suggest that he cares about getting campaign funds from businesses.  I suggest that the state money given out by WEDC in the form of loans and tax breaks was intended as an investment in Gov. Walker’s political future.  There may of course be other explanations, but mine makes sense of the facts.  He made sure that the money was given out, but he didn’t worry about what it was used for.  If you don’t agree with my explanation, what do you suggest?