The lack of appropriate oversight and reporting has made the success of WEDC incentives in achieving job retention, job creation and investment goals difficult if not impossible to analyze. A 2013 audit of the agency’s 2011-2012 performance found that only 45 percent of recipients of 59 awards had submitted contractually required reports on their progress toward meeting their contractual terms. The report also stated that some awards were made to ineligible recipients, for ineligible projects, and were given amounts that exceeded program limits. Further, one-third of the 30 WEDC economic development programs did not meet their expected goals.

This report investigates the link between political contributions to Governor Scott Walker’s gubernatorial campaigns and receipt of Wisconsin Economic Development Commission loans, grants, bonds, tax credits or other financial assistance to political donors. Additionally, actions of WEDC funding recipients (or their owners or members) were researched, along with potential conflicts of interest by WEDC staff and/or board members.

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1) Walker Receives More Than $2 Million Campaign Benefit from WEDC Recipients, Who in Turn Receive Nearly 60 Percent of State’s Economic Development Dollars.

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3) WEDC Recipients Feature Companies Engaged in Health and Safety Violations, Mass Layoffs and Conflicts of Interest.

The average American cashier makes $20,230 a year, which in a single-earner household would leave a family of four living under the poverty line. But if he works the cash registers at QuikTrip, it’s an entirely different story. The convenience store and gas station chain offers entry-level employees an annual salary of around $40,000, plus benefits. Those high wages didn’t stop QuikTrip from prospering in a hostile economic climate. While other low-cost retailers spent the recession laying off staff and shuttering stores, QuikTrip expanded to its current 645 locations across 11 states.

Many employers believe that one of the best ways to raise their profit margin is to cut labor costs. But companies like QuikTrip, the grocery store chain Trader Joe’s, and Costco Wholesale are proving that the decision to offer low wages is a choice, not an economic necessity. All three are low-cost retailers, a sector that is traditionally known for relying on part-time, low-paid employees. Yet these companies have all found that the act of valuing workers can pay off in the form of increased sales and productivity.

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QuikTrip, Trader Joe’s, and Costco operate on a different model, says Ton. “They start with the mentality of seeing employees as assets to be maximized,” she says. As a result, their stores boast better operational efficiency and customer service, and those result in better sales. QuikTrip sales per labor hour are two-thirds higher than the average convenience store chain, Ton found, and sales per square foot are over fifty percent higher.

Entry-level hires at QuikTrip are trained for two full weeks before they start work, and they learn everything from how to order merchandise to how to clean the bathroom. Most store managers are promoted from within, giving employees a reason to work hard. “They can see that if you work hard, if you’re smart, the opportunity to grow within the company is very, very good,” says company spokesman Mike Thornbrugh.