Correction: The original version of this posting incorrectly attributed a report to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, and not The Associated Press. We regret the error.
The attempt by the Tea Party head of Scott Walker’s scandal-plagued job agency to raid $200 million from the state’s successful pension fund was rebuffed not only because it was bad policy — but because it represented a bad investment.
That’s what was being reported by The Associated Press, which indicated that Reed Hall, Scott Walker’s Tea Party CEO of the disgraced Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation (WEDC), sought to convert the money from the State of Wisconsin Investment Board (SWIB), which manages major assets of the Wisconsin Retirement System (WRS).
Hall, according to the report, was acting on the outrageous loan arrangement to fund another Scott Walker venture capital scheme, an act of desperation given Walker’s utter failure to reach his promise to create 250,000 private-sector jobs in his first term.
According to the Associated Press, a spokesman for the investment board said of the Tea Party raid that, “investment choices are made based on what will bring the best return and those that are purely for economic development would not meet its requirements.”
“Putting a Tea Party crony and campaign donor in charge of your jobs agency is irresponsible. To have that crony try to raid $200 million from funds that ARE managed prudently and wisely is plainly outrageous,” Democratic Party of Wisconsin Chair Mike Tate said Tuesday. “The new revelations show the desperate acts of a desperate governor who fears that he will be judged by his own promise to create 250,000 private-sector jobs in his first term.”
Read the report here.
