$100 million jobs fund was mistake, lawmakers say

The Seattle Times reports:

Washington's largest job-development program, touted by state lawmakers as a way to create "family-wage" jobs, is spending millions of dollars to attract employers that hire low-wage workers.

In many cases, grants were given to projects that provided no information about job creation. In other instances, local communities seeking aid listed the number of jobs expected, but state officials did not vet the information.

In addition, the criteria used to select projects gave more weight to increasing tax collections than to adding family-wage jobs.

Key lawmakers, including legislators involved in creating the program or selecting projects, now say the jobs fund in its current form was a mistake. Although there are good projects getting state money, they say, many of them raise questions.

"This isn't a worthwhile expenditure of money," said Rep. Hans Dunshee, D-Snohomish, vice chairman of the House Appropriations Committee. "The attempt was to get at lifetime employment, real jobs that you can have a family on. Obviously, I don't think it succeeded."

Theft through majority voting.What better proof than this.