Audit: Wisconsin state funds could leave state for Foxconn


Audit: Wisconsin state funds could leave state for Foxconn
A Wisconsin Legislative Audit Bureau (LAB) review of the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation (WEDC) found the agency created a policy which would allow Foxconn to receive taxpayer dollars for employees not working in Wisconsin. The LAB found WEDC made new policies on its own, which would allow WEDC to count remote workers or other employees serving the Wisconsin Foxconn operations, even if they don`t physically work in Wisconsin. But according to the review, state law requires WEDC only give money for services performed in Wisconsin... ...more Ken Notes: We have to fix WEDC and by fix I mean a ground up restructuring of policy and practice. We need to save a central agency to deal with Economic Development but that is all we need to save. If we return to the array of disconnected state and local programs we had in the past we will not be able to support our growing companies not to mention attracting new ones. When WEDC was first created I wrote about the potential of admitting and correcting the sins of the past and creating a way for business to work with the state and local communities amid the hundreds of programs the exist. THAT NEVER HAPPENED! When people tried to fix it they were asked to leave. When I wrote about it my words were used as a platform to point fingers. WEDC is broken because it never fixed the problems in the first place. Economic Development is not a partisan issue it is a people issue. We need Wisconsin Citizens working in well paid jobs, in growing companies and small businesses, with affordable health care and job security. If the economy struggles we need to bend not break. We need to see government as a partner not a prosecutor. We need to see business as a tool for all workers not just senior management to thrive. Neither party understands all of this and WEDC has not educated us. The failure is us allowing politicians to play a high stakes poker game with all of us as nothing but chips.
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Our Sponsors - - Volume: 6 - WEEK: 52 Date: 12/27/2018 8:47:58 AM -

A Wisconsin Legislative Audit Bureau (LAB) review of the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation (WEDC) found the agency created a policy which would allow Foxconn to receive taxpayer dollars for employees not working in Wisconsin.

The LAB found WEDC made new policies on its own, which would allow WEDC to count remote workers or other employees serving the Wisconsin Foxconn operations, even if they don`t physically work in Wisconsin. But according to the review, state law requires WEDC only give money for services performed in Wisconsin...

...more

Ken Notes: We have to fix WEDC and by fix I mean a ground up restructuring of policy and practice. We need to save a central agency to deal with Economic Development but that is all we need to save. If we return to the array of disconnected state and local programs we had in the past we will not be able to support our growing companies not to mention attracting new ones.

When WEDC was first created I wrote about the potential of admitting and correcting the sins of the past and creating a way for business to work with the state and local communities amid the hundreds of programs the exist. THAT NEVER HAPPENED! When people tried to fix it they were asked to leave. When I wrote about it my words were used as a platform to point fingers. WEDC is broken because it never fixed the problems in the first place.

Economic Development is not a partisan issue it is a people issue. We need Wisconsin Citizens working in well paid jobs, in growing companies and small businesses, with affordable health care and job security. If the economy struggles we need to bend not break. We need to see government as a partner not a prosecutor. We need to see business as a tool for all workers not just senior management to thrive. Neither party understands all of this and WEDC has not educated us. The failure is us allowing politicians to play a high stakes poker game with all of us as nothing but chips.

Audit: Wisconsin state funds could leave state for Foxconn

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