Contact: Joe Shansky (414) 218-3331, joe@vdlf.org
ADVISORY FOR WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 17th 10 am
Yesterday, supporters of the Palermo Workers Union released a new report – “Too Much Pork in the Pepperoni Pizza? Tax Credits For Palermo’s Highlight Need for More Transparency, Accountability at the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation”.
Today, the report’s author, Julie Farb Blain of the CSR, and Cheryl Maranto, Chair of the Department of Management at Marquette University, will join striking workers at the plant to provide testimony in Madison at the state legislative Joint Audit Commitee hearing. The AFL-CIO’s Center for Strategic Research authored the report detailing the $26 million dollars in public subsidies that Palermo Villa Inc. has received from city, state, and federal sources for economic development and job creation.
A FOIA request has revealed documents by the company so heavily redacted that it was impossible to know whether the company met job creation benchmarks, for which new jobs the company claimed or received tax credits, and whether any new jobs Palermo Villa created actually meet the full-time, permanent, and minimum wage specifications the company committed it in its contract with the WEDC.
The WEDC claimed yesterday to have released job accountability data and Palermos claimed to have met all of Its job creation benchmarks, but examination of the document released by the WEDC only Friday, shows total job numbers which conflict with the the numbers from Wisconsin Housing and Economic Development Agency. The WEDC disclosure form is also too vague to determine the quality of the jobs Palermos claims to have created and for which it has claimed tax credits.
Palermo Workers who have been on strike for 5 months will testify to continuously receiving poverty-wage jobs after many years of service to the company.
WHO: Julie Farb-Blain, AFL CIO Center for Strategic Research
Cheryl Maranto, Chair, Department of Management, Marquette University
Palermo Workers Union
WHERE: State Capitol, Madison
WHEN: Wednesday, 10 am
