Democrats want the U.S. Justice Department to investigate a half-million dollar state loan to a failing construction company whose owner donated $10,000 dollars to Gov. Scott Walker’s 2010 gubernatorial campaign.
The Wisconsin State Journal reported on Monday morning that in 2011, then-Walker Administration Secretary Mike Huebsch pushed for a $4.3 million loan to Building Committee Inc. in Milwaukee just as the now-defunct company was collapsing. The Wisconsin Economic Development Corp. gave the company a half-million dollars, which it did not repay.
WEDC told the State Journal it could not find the original documents used to justify the loan.
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Assembly Minority Leader Peter Barca, who sits on the WEDC Board, said the U.S. attorney general should investigate the loan.
“It just cries out for an independent investigation to ensure that there is not pay-to-play going on here,” said Barca.
Walker’s office issued a statement saying this was “clearly political gamesmanship” by Democrats. A WEDC spokesman said the agency was still trying to recover the loan.
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