Madison — The state’s top jobs agency has settled its $360,000 lawsuit with a shuttered Tomahawk metal company for $125,000, state officials said.
The Department of Commerce made a $375,000 to the company now known as Tomahawk Metal Products LLC in June 2011 even though the firm was behind in rent and taxes to the city and was facing federal fines for alleged health and safety violations, the website Wisconsin Watch reported this week.
Days after the loan was made, the Department of Commerce was replaced by the Wisconsin Economic Development Corp., which brought the lawsuit against Tomahawk after it defaulted on the loan.
WEDC spokesman Mark Maley said that state officials were aware of the health and safety violations but that the project held the potential for creating jobs in a Northern Wisconsin area with high unemployment.