Wisconsin’s job creation agency needs a pink slip

It may be time for Wisconsin’s much maligned job creation agency to get a pink slip. The Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation has been a colossal waste of taxpayer money since its inception in 2011. The public-private agency was designed to create jobs and help Governor Walker try to make good on his pledge to create 250,000 new jobs during his first term. He never did hit that mark, even in his second term. But the agency spent millions of tax dollars trying. The agency was besieged by loans fraudulently obtained, the failure to keep track of loans, defaults never recouped and allegations a top Walker appointee wanted to funnel job creation money to a top campaign donor. And of course there is the Foxconn deal. Some $4 billion and counting. A bigger deal than the bidding war for Amazon’s next plant. Some suggest Wisconsin taxpayers commitment to Foxconn calls for us to provide subsidies equal to $219,000 per job. We’re not creating jobs, we’re buying jobs. Governor-elect Tony Evers is vowing to dismantle the agency, arguing it is not sustainable to continue to give away billions of our tax dollars in corporate welfare. He is right. WEDC has been a failed experiment which needs to come to an end before they waste even more of our money.