60% of WEDC supported corporations have failed to meet job creation goals

14,000 jobs deficit for existing corporate tax credits and loans greater than the direct jobs claimed for the Foxconn deal

60% of WEDC supported corporations have failed to meet job creation goals.

STATEWIDE: On a media call today Citizen Action of Wisconsin, State Rep. Amanda Stuck, and State Rep. Jonathan Brostoff released a new analysis of Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation (WEDC) data showing that the troubled economic development agency has an extremely poor record of holding corporate recipients accountable for their jobs promises. The analysis, which comes from the agency’s own self-published data, provides additional evidence that WEDC is completely unqualified to manage the gigantic Foxconn deal, which would be by far the largest job creation tax credit program ever issued by an American state. Audio of the call can be found here. Read More

Communities in economic distress need job creation strategies at the scale of the problem

Communities in economic distress need job creation strategies at the scale of the problem

Milwaukee: At a news event in Milwaukee’s Sherman Park Neighborhood today elected officials and community leaders spoke out about revelations that the jobs agency created by Governor Walker, Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation (WEDC), misrepresented its impact on jobs in the area.

Economically distressed neighborhoods like Sherman Park abandoned

Economically distressed neighborhoods like Sherman Park abandoned by Wisconsin’s bankrupt economic strategy

Milwaukee: A review of reporting by Governor Walker’s jobs agency by Citizen Action of Wisconsin could verify no job creation in or near Milwaukee’s Sherman Park neighborhood, the site of civil unrest over the weekend.

As Citizen Action of Wisconsin documented in its statement Tuesday on the Sherman Park civil unrest, the neighborhood has borne the brunt of the outsourcing and deindustrialization that has taken place since the 1970s.

The Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation (WEDC), in a Citizen Action review of their database, does claim to have created 483 jobs in the area, but a closer looks reveals these companies do not actually exist in the neighborhood.

WEDC report – large regional disparities

In February Citizen Action of Wisconsin released research showing major geographic and partisan disparities in the claimed impact of Governor Walker’s semi-privatized jobs agency, the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation (WEDC).  Today we are releasing new data posted on WEDC’s website which provides additional evidence of large regional disparities.

Our analysis looks at the self-reported “jobs projected” numbers claimed by WEDC compared to the population of each individual county. WEDC defines “jobs projected” as jobs it had some hand in creating, although the agency does not provide clear definitions and analytical support for how it makes these determinations. For example, for a $26,210 grant by WEDC to Precision Paper Converters, LLC in Outagamie County, WEDC estimates 45 “jobs projected.”   Although we have significant reservations about these claimed impacts, for the purposes of this report we take WEDC data at face value, and examine whether or not economic benefits are being fairly and proportionally distributed to every region of Wisconsin. Read More

WEDC report – impacted jobs in Democratic and Republican Assembly Districts

As released in Citizen Action’s report – “UNEVEN DEVELOPMENT: WEDC’s Claimed Jobs Impact Leaves Many Areas of Wisconsin Behind” – shows a stark contrast in Scott Walker’s economic develop agency WEDC between impacted jobs in Democratic and Republican Assembly Districts. The major overview:

  • While one Assembly district has over 6,000 jobs supposedly projected, 14 Assembly districts have none whatsoever.
  • In 22 Assembly districts WEDC claims to have impacted over 1,000 jobs, while 25 districts have less than 100 supposedly impacted.
  • Republican Assembly districts have close to twice as many jobs projected as Democratic Assembly districts (86% more, or 389 more jobs projected on average).

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Gross Mismanagement of WI Job Creation Programs

New Audit Shows Gross Mismanagement of WI Job Creation Programs

Walker jobs agency so badly run it is not possible to assess effectiveness of programs

Madison: A scathing new report released this morning by the Legislative Audit Bureau gives the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation (WEDC), the state’s lead job creation organization, a failing grade on every basic measure of program administration and accountability. According to the report, the organization’s reporting and management are so shoddy that it is not possible to “assess the effectiveness of WEDC’s economic development programs.”

The partially privatized organization was created in 2011 by the Walker Administration over the protests of Citizen Action of Wisconsin and coalition partners who warned it would lack accountability and transparency. Read More