Maximum Transparency Needed in Proposed Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation

WISPIRG

Statement by WISPIRG Program Associate, Shannon Nelson, on Gov-elect Walker’s Tuesday announcement to replace the Commerce department with a quasi-public Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation, a public-private entity governed by an executive director and a 12-member board of directors. Yesterday, the Governor-elect gave important details about the new agency’s initial goals for transparency and accountability to the public.

“We applaud Governor-elect Walker for acknowledging the need for transparency in government and his transparency proposals yesterday for a new quasi-public economic development agency are a step in the right direction, but he must do more to give Wisconsin taxpayers the information we deserve.

When public money is handed out to private companies, open records and meetings rules are no more than a baseline for transparency.  Taxpayers deserve to know whether or not we’re getting bang for our valuable tax dollar.

A new subsidy board must have unprecedented openness and include strong public protections, such as rules that exclude companies from making decisions to hand out taxpayer-financed subsidies for their own related industries or affiliated companies and that require full reporting about the jobs or other benefits that were promised and then delivered, among other rules.

Further, neighboring states including Minnesota and Illinois already have programs to recapture public subsidies when recipients don’t deliver on promises. Wisconsin taxpayers deserve the same protections.

We appreciate the steps that the Governor-elect is taking to make his proposed agency transparent and look forward to working with him to ensure public dollars are not wasted, to make Wisconsin a more successful place to grow jobs and to maximize efficiency and accountability with the public purse.”