One of the more frowned-upon techniques of economic development is so-called “job poaching,” where states or local governments try to lure companies to jump across municipal or state borders with various incentives or giveaways.

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Those problems are laid out in a new national report called “Job Creation Shell Game” from the Washington-based think tank Good Jobs First. The report says state and local governments waste billions of dollars each year on economic development subsidies given to companies for moving existing jobs from one location to another rather than focusing on the creation of actual new positions or companies.

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“The result is a vast waste of taxpayer funds, paying for the geographic reshuffling of existing jobs rather than new business activity,” says Greg LeRoy, executive director of Good Jobs First. “By pretending that these jobs are new, public officials and the recipient companies engage in what amounts to interstate job fraud.” The report apparently has not yet reached the desk of Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker or state Rep. Erik Severson, R-Osceola, who are busy these day encouraging Minnesota businesses to relocate across the border to the Badger State.

In a political smackdown, however, Dayton took a shot at Walker during his State of the State address on Wednesday, noting that Minnesota was 12th in the nation in job creation last year while Wisconsin “which, by the way, is ‘open for business,’ helped bring up the rear at 42nd.” Dayton kept up the drubbing: "And, help spread the word across the St. Croix, their unemployment rate last month was 20 percent higher than ours, while our per-capita income was 12 percent higher than theirs."