Scott Walker fired by his own

Posted: May 22, 2015

In his two-year budget, Gov. Scott Walker called for a merger between WEDC and the Wisconsin Housing and Economic Development Authority, to be known as the Forward Wisconsin Development Authority. Under that plan, Walker called for removing all elected officials from the board, including himself. Earlier this month, Walker scrapped the merger plan, calling for all proposed agency mergers to be removed from the budget. He also asked lawmakers not to move forward with separate legislation proposing the same thing. Though the governor's request came hours after a searing audit found the agency hadn't followed state law or tracked job creation, he cited concerns from legislators, stakeholders and the WEDC and WHEDA boards in his request to halt the merger. Since then, bad news has continued to follow WEDC, the quasi-private economic development agency Walker created to replace the state’s commerce department four years ago. Days after pressing pause on the FWDA merger, the governor said he wants to phase out direct loans to businesses. A Wisconsin State Journal investigation, published Sunday, revealed that Mike Huebsch, Walker's former secretary of Administration, pushed for a $4.3 million WEDC loan for Building Committee Inc. — eventually reduced to $500,000, which was not repaid — even as the company was collapsing. Walker's move to halt loans came hours after the state released records relating to BCI's loan on Friday. Read more: http://host.madison.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/jon-erpenbach-wisconsin-republicans-have-fired-scott-walker-from-wedc/article_44f44bf1-ca4d-5014-bc70-9882bb700bf6.html#ixzz3avlJwt87 ;