The expenses for the trip also included $1,600 for a VIP service that greeted Governor Evers and his wife during layovers at the Paris and London airports. The service, provided by a company called Fastrack, included a personalized name sign, luggage assistance, and expedited movement through the airports and customs. Additionally, a $182 staff lunch purchased by Hughes was listed without a receipt; instead, a “lost” receipt noted the expense was from a restaurant in Wiesbaden, Germany.
Further expenses comprised per diem food costs for trip participants, airport parking at Madison, seat upgrades, and extra baggage fees during flights.
Evers’ office and the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation (WEDC) did not respond to multiple attempts for comment regarding the trip, beginning with inquiries after WEDC issued a press release on April 1. The WEDC took nearly seven months to produce the records from the trip.
John Mozena, president of the Center of Economic Accountability, recently testified on the value of overseas economic development trips during a committee meeting in Michigan. He questioned the effectiveness and motivations behind such trips:
> “These economic development subsidy programs run all too often not as economic tools but as political tools, a way for elected officials to essentially get taxpayers to fund re-election advertising on the cheap,” Mozena said. “These things aren’t being done to create jobs; they’re being done to make voters believe that you’re responsible for creating jobs.
> “These international trips are a way for governors and other elected or high-ranking officials to get a nice trip on the taxpayer dime but also to show how hard they’re working, supposedly, when in fact the real issues that companies are . sitting back at home not being addressed.”
Mozena noted that face-to-face meetings with governors and economic development officials are not essential for attracting businesses to states. He cited a survey from Area Development magazine of U.S. business site selectors that ranked state and local incentives only ninth in importance—trailing factors like energy availability, workforce, available land, skilled labor, and regulatory environment.
> “They don’t do nearly as much as the folks that go on them would like to have everyone believe,” Mozena said, noting that these trips always seem to be to desirable locations. “But I’m paying for it and not letting the taxpayers do it.”
He also commented that meeting a governor is not a major or important event for multinational corporations.
Evers’ office and the WEDC did not respond to questions regarding how the trip was paid for, but WEDC’s budget plan summary includes $900,000 for trade missions and foreign direct investment. Planned destinations for future trips include Japan, Canada, Mexico, and Germany.
Hughes, who has since resigned her post, is currently running for governor. She is highlighting her economic development work on the campaign trail, including the Foxconn project in Pleasant Prairie, which is now set to be a pair of data centers within tax increment districts.
> “I had to come in and clean up that mess,” Hughes reportedly said at a candidate forum.
Mozena pointed to Foxconn as an example of the problems and risks associated with international economic development deals:
> “I think Foxconn is the perfect example of the problems and dangers and limitations of this kind of thing,” Mozena said. “Foxconn is easily the highest profile international economic deal that Wisconsin’s ever had, and it’s a disaster.”
Mozena further questioned the value of subsidizing data centers:
> “If you were trying to design the dumbest possible thing to subsidize, it would be a data center,” Mozena said. “They are these big, dark buildings where virtually nobody works. Most of the high-value work at those facilities isn’t being done by people on-site—it’s being done by programmers in Silicon Valley, Shanghai, Mumbai, or someplace like that.”
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/3880304/evers-wedc-spent-160k-trade-trip-europe/
