Wisconsin has had years of embarrassments from the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation, of economic manipulation, of picking supposed winners as though party hacks would know better than markets. It was a method bound to disappoint.
These smarmy men at the WEDC have been trying to show progress on the millions of bad loans they’ve made. Lazy men that they are, they’re reducing millions in bad loans not by trying to salvage them, but simply by writing them off –
Friday’s audit [by the Legislative Audit Bureau] found that the troubled loans held by WEDC dropped from 49 loans totaling $13.2 million as of June 2013 to 30 loans totaling $5.5 million as of December 2013.
Of the $7.7 million decrease in troubled loans held by WEDC, the biggest chunk — $3.2 million — came from loans that were written off by WEDC because they were 90 days past due.
For the state to proceed with the collection process, those loans had to be transferred from WEDC to the Department of Administration. So by itself that change is just a bureaucratic shuffle, not a gain for taxpayers.
The audit didn’t examine what had happened to the loans after they went to the administration department.
The next biggest chunk of past due loans, worth $2.1 million, had their contracts rewritten by WEDC to delay repayment by the borrowers.
Another $1.3 million in loans were forgiven by WEDC in whole or in part….
See, Audit: jobs agency makes progress on bad loans by writing many off.
When Messrs. Telfer, Knight, and Clapper met for a second time at the Innovation Center with WEDC leader Reed Hall, to crow about what a great program the WEDC has been, it’s a shambling, stumbling, dishonest agency they were praising.
That’s what they dragged into Whitewater yet again. This agency is the embodiment of disrespect or ignorance of sound policy
That’s a problem of corporate welfare, of course, yet more: if one will overlook such obvious failure, loss, and disgrace to Wisconsin from the WEDC, perhaps one will overlook the risks, costs, and vital details of other bad ideas.
Previously, at FREE WHITEWATER on the WEDC:
- At WEDC-Sponsored Tech Festival, Local Company Announces a Move to Ohio
- WEDC Update (subsidizing the outsourcing of jobs to other countries)
- Local Crony Capitalism via the WEDC (and similar schemes)
- The Truth About the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation
- WEDC Board Offers Millions to Subsidize Job Cuts
- WEDC Afflicted with Internal Strife
See, below, the Legislative Audit Bureau report and a reply from the WEDC’s Reed Hall: