More oversight, rules, needed at WEDC

Wisconsin’s chief job creation agency is back in the news, and once again the news is not good. It turns out that the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation continues to hand out our tax dollars to companies that then ship jobs overseas. But at a board meeting today, WEDC will be asked to adopt stricter reporting requirements. Two years ago, WEDC insisted that any companies which get state tax dollars to create jobs, but then ship those jobs overseas, would have to notify the state within 30 days. But it turns out that policy is only being applied to new contracts. Since the policy was enacted, the Eaten Corp accepted more than $37,000 from the state, but then outsourced hundreds of jobs to Mexico. Some companies allegedly received past awards, outsourced the jobs, then received new contracts from the state. Apparently, the WEDC board likes giving our money away, even with little in return. Critics hope to force WEDC to notify the state of job cuts or outsourced jobs no matter when they received the contract. The new policy would also require the agency to tell its board about companies that cut jobs, and those companies which fail to notify the state when they do. These new policies are needed because we can’t afford to allow the state to keep playing Santa Claus with our tax dollars.