Report Shows State Jobs Agency Still Fails
Audit of WEDC finds companies given tax credits and loans created only 35% of promised jobs.
Wisconsin State Capitol. Photo by Dave Reid.
A new audit finds continuing problems at Wisconsin’s economic development agency.
The review from the nonpartisan Legislative Audit Bureau released Friday examined the Wisconsin Economic Development Corp.
The audit said the companies that got tax credit and loan awards during the fiscal year ending in June 2018 only created about 35 percent of required jobs.
In one case, the report said the WEDC awarded $462,000 in tax credits for job creation to one recipient that actually lost 17 jobs.
The report said WEDC could have required loan recipients to repay $4 million.
Republican state Sen. Robert Cowles, co-chair of the Legislature’s audit committee, said that is a major concern for him.
“If there’s a big gap between the contract and actual performance, I think we have to question whether some of these things are actually working,” Cowles said.
The audit also faulted WEDC for awarding tax credits to recipients that created or retained jobs filled by people outside of Wisconsin.
Mark Hogan, WEDC secretary and CEO, said in a letter to auditors that his agency has been working to address the concerns raised in previous audits and will provide an action plan to address the latest recommendations in the next 30 to 45 days.
Republican state Rep. Samantha Kerkman, who co-chairs the audit committee with Cowles, described the findings of the audit as “frustrating,” but added that WEDC has already made changes to ensure that companies are meeting their job targets to receive benefits.
She said if WEDC address these issues, it can help boost the state’s economy.
“We still need this tool, and our economic development people in our counties tell us that we need the state and local partners to work together to help attract and retain jobs here in Wisconsin,” she said.
Latest WEDC Audit Finds Gap Between Jobs Pledged And Jobs Produced was originally published by Wisconsin Public Radio.
WEDC has been operating for 8+ years. In that time, Wisconsin’s job growth lags behind most of its neighbors, its economy lags the national average. What’s more, the WEDC burden on Wisconsin taxpayers is in the billions of dollars.
Republicans are only FRUSTRATED by another poor audit ????? If these so called business people in the Republican party had these kinds of results in their own businesses, the contract would have been cancelled after the 2nd bad audit. When do Wisconsin taxpayers get the luxury of dumping this failed initiative? We have much more pressing priorities.