WI Legislative Fiscal Bureau says @GovWalker's WEDC illegally awarded $21 million in tax credits.

[riversedge]

When a WI Republican says he will clarify a law-this means he will rewrite to make past illegal actions legal


WI Legislative Fiscal Bureau says @GovWalker's WEDC illegally awarded $21 million in tax credit http://www.jsonline.com/news/statepolitics/wedc-may-have-illegally-awarded-21-million-in-tax-credits-b99618993z1-351723541.html #p2


WEDC may have illegally awarded $21 million in tax credits
By Jason Stein of the Journal Sentinel
Nov. 19, 2015 6:37 a.m.

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Madison— In the latest challenge for Wisconsin's top jobs agency, its officials awarded $21 million in tax credits to companies but likely lacked the legal authority to do so, the Legislature's non-partisan budget office and attorneys have concluded.

The finding by the Legislative Fiscal Bureau came in a private Aug. 19 letter to the Wisconsin Economic Development Corp. that the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel is reporting on for the first time.

But other state attorneys from WEDC, the Department of Justice, and the Department of Administration disagree, leaving the question in legal limbo for now.

Rep. John Nygren (R-Marinette), co-chairman of the Legislature's budget committee, said Tuesday that he didn't believe WEDC had intentionally violated the law. But Nygren said state law may need to be clarified because he didn't think that WEDC's actions matched what lawmakers had originally intended with the tax credit program.

"It is something we're looking at addressing and clarifying," Nygren said of the dispute over the law.

The disagreement raises questions about the legal status of millions of dollars in awards to Wisconsin companies as well as about the actions of WEDC itself. The agency explains the dispute as one of differing interpretations of state law, not acts of bad faith.....................

[Thinkingabout]

1. The more we hear from this guy the more dirt I see. Good for Americans he dropped out of the race.

[Scuba]

2. Walker's Economic Disaster Corporation is a slush fund for paying off his donors.

Why would anyone think differently?

[Half-Century Man]

3. The WEDC is a private company created by the state

to replace the public Department of Commerce. This was done to evade public oversight.

It still has officers appointed by and answerable only to current state administration. It still is funded by public money. It still has the legal authority to commit the state to contracts ( without having to go through the process of bidding). It can still grant special privileges (tax breaks, etc), but skips the legislative voting on those awarded privileges.

As that it wields the powers of a state agency, but lacks commitments to exposure of process and legislative due process. As it is only answerable to whoever sits in the governor's chair. Occam's Razor brings us to; it is there to financially reward persons the standing Governor wants to. It is the state system of kickback.