WEDC Update

Anyone betting locally on the supposed prestige and success of the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation has placed a bad bet. 

That corrupt and incompetent agency is in the news yet again for its failures and lies:

WEDC award recipients outsourced Wisconsin jobs to foreign countries —

WKOW 27: Madison, WI Breaking News, Weather and Sports

Report: WEDC-backed Kestrel had financing issues in Maine before moving to Wisconsin —

On Monday, Hackett passed along this piece from Maine about Kestrel Aircraft, the company that has promised to create 600 jobs in Superior with help from the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation.

Headlined “Kestrel in Brunswick: How blue-sky promises came crashing down,” the story describes how Kestrel owner Alan Klapmeier had been fighting with officials in Maine about not providing enough taxpayer support for his dream of manufacturing commercial airplanes at a closed military base in Brunswick.

According to the report, Klapmeier was expecting a $100 million allocation of New Markets Tax Credits — a federal program designed to encourage investment in low-income rural areas — but had only received about a fifth of that amount.

Failing to land enough funding in Maine, Klapmeier began seeking other sources of public money and apparently found a willing participant in newly-elected Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker.

“Note the quote where people in Maine were happy that Wisconsin won this battle,” Hackett says of the report in the Forecaster, a weekly published in Falmouth, Maine.

With new backing in place from WEDC, Klapmeier joined Walker in January 2012 to announce plans to design and build a carbon fiber passenger airplane in Superior.

Unfortunately, the project hasn’t taken hold and Kestrel has yet to follow through on its promises. Klapmeier is also apparently involved in a dispute with Wisconsin officials over the amount of New Markets Tax Credits that had been promised, according to BusinessNorth.com.

Now, admittedly, the WEDC is not the only mistake in the history of American politics and policy.

Whitewater’s town fathers might have hit upon something equally embarrassing, if only they had kept looking:

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For prior FW posts on the WEDC, consider The Truth About the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation and The Disgrace that is the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation.

Tomorrow: How Conservatives Ruined Conservatism in Whitewater.