Although Republicans said Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation was already being fixed internally and externally, Democrats expressed their concerns over a recent WEDC audit Tuesday at the state Assembly.
The Democratic proposal would have established a committee that would “devise ways to ensure” WEDC follows the law. That proposal followed a state audit last week that said WEDC did not always follow the law in giving and tracking grants and did not track employee purchases properly.
Republicans said the proposal was unnecessary, however, as the Legislative Audit Committee is hearing from the agency Thursday, and WEDC’s leadership has already taken steps to fix many of the issues.
Rep. Jeff Stone, R-Greendale, who sits on WEDC’s Board of Directors, said the board would make changes much quicker internally than a legislative committee, which would take too long to make recommendations.
The latest revelation was that WEDC spokesperson John Gillespie resigned after WKOW reported he owed the state about $36,000 in back taxes and received almost $8,000 in unemployment insurance that he was not supposed to receive.
WEDC spokesperson Tom Thieding declined to comment on the resignation, although he told WKOW that, since Gillespie lived outside the state when he was hired, his offenses did not show up in the quasi-private agency’s background check.
Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, told reporters before the Assembly session that the resignation was an “embarrassing situation.”
Democrats criticized the agency throughout the session, using the latest news as another example of the agency’s failures. In a statement, Democratic Party of Wisconsin Chair Mike Tate blasted Gov. Scott Walker for letting one of his former top staffers, WEDC Chief Operating Officer Ryan Murray, run the agency.
“Unfortunately, this is what happens when your governor is off campaigning for president, leaving an unqualified political hack with no business experience in charge of a multi-billion dollar effort to save Wisconsin’s floundering economy,” Tate said.
WEDC is up for discussion at two joint legislative committees Thursday morning: the Joint Finance Committee that would approve WEDC funds and the audit committee.
Assembly Minority Leader Peter Barca, D-Kenosha, and other Democrats pushed a JFC co-chair to delay the WEDC budget decisions Thursday until more details came out. Barca also sits on the WEDC Board of Directors.
“It would be irresponsible to give them more money given the fact that they have violated the law in multiple occasions,” Barca said.
The audit committee co-chair, Rep. Samantha Kerkman, R-Randall, said the audit committee’s work would be enough and invited anyone with concerns to come to or testify at the committee hearing.
Rep. John Nygren, R-Marinette, a JFC co-chair, said passing a law to make sure an agency follows the law was “ridiculous” and that the agency was already solving many of the problems listed in the audit.
Vos echoed those comments and said if the audit bureau looked at WEDC current operations, it would likely find much different results.
“I would like to have things focused on economic development and creating jobs and not trying to find problems that are not there,” Vos said. “I know there are serious problems that exist. There’s no doubt about that. But many of them, I think, are in the process of being solved.”
