Let’s assume you’re a troubled, controversial public-private hybrid agency in Wisconsin, like the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation. While spending vast sums of public money, you decide to issue a press release announcing taxpayers’ your largesse. You must know – and hope residents of a small city don’t know — that you’re politically toxic, across the…
State Government
CDA, City, Corporate Welfare, Government Spending, Innovation Center/Tech Park, Law, Official Misconduct, Open Government, State Government, Taxes/Taxation, Wisconsin
The Truth about the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation
by JOHN ADAMS •
A person should be able to make simple distinctions, as between the sensible and foolish, or practical and impractical. Sometimes those distinctions should be clear, and as stark as the difference between the contents of a sample cup and a glass of Chardonnay. You’ll hear a lot locally over the next few days about a…
City, Corporate Welfare, Federal Government, Government Spending, State Government
The Innovation Express Generac Bus: ‘Public Transit Is Not Expected to Make Money’
by JOHN ADAMS •
The ‘Innovation Express’ – even less efficient, more costly, and more unjustified as crony capitalism than anyone might have thought! There are two stories at the Janesville Gazette that do their damnedest to justify federal, state, and local subsidies ($83,005) for a bus that benefits principally a few workers from multi-billion-dollar Generac, but even cheerleading…
Government Spending, Planning, State Government
Update on the Spectrum Brands State-backed Deal
by JOHN ADAMS •
I wrote earlier about the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation’s millions for Spectrum Brands (Rayovac, among other brands). The professed purpose was to keep the company in Wisconsin. As it turned out, they took they money, as part of a relocation to Middleton, Wisconsin. There’s scant credible evidence that they truly were prepared to leave. A…
Government Spending, Innovation Center/Tech Park, State Government
The Spectrum Brands State-backed Deal: Either Shameful Negligence or Shameful Dishonesty
by JOHN ADAMS •
Consider how profligate the State of Wisconsin is with public money. Millions spent on a business relocation for a corporation that (1) withheld its identity, (2) was already in Wisconsin, (3) used flimsy worries about protests at the Capitol as way to curry favor with the Walker Administration, (4) where the head of the Wisconsin…