New sales tax and tax-funded buildings already in Foxconn pipeline

For the second time in less than a week, The Wheeler Report just happened to have two different stories in the same local paper show up next to each other on their feed today which underlined the same point. The Fox-con is going to cost the people of this state a lot more than $3 billion, and even the local taxpayers in Racine County (where the facility would likely be…if it ever happens) could end up worse off as a result of this scam.

The first item in the Racine Journal-Times follows up from something we discussed last week, where a small amount of Foxconn employees are already doing planning work near the site (meaning incentives will be getting paid to Foxconn in this budget…and there’s nothing set aside in the budget to pay for it). They’re being sited at the local tech college in Sturtevant, and that school is preparing to give Foxconn another taxpayer-funded bit of assistance in the near future.

Gateway Technical College is preparing for a $5 million-plus expansion of the SC Johnson iMET Center so as to be able to train the employees whom a local Foxconn manufacturing plant would need.

Gateway’s Board of Trustees voted unanimously Thursday to apply for a $5 million state grant for the expansion, as authorized in the $3 billion Foxconn incentives bill Gov. Scott Walker signed on Sept. 18 at the iMET Center, 2320 Renaissance Blvd…

The envisioned iMET project would add roughly 28,000 square feet to iMET’s existing 58,500 square feet, or an expansion by slightly less than half. Like the existing building, the new area would be two stories tall and lie mostly to the west, with a smaller new area and a new entrance to the north, Whyte said.

The board’s resolution to apply for the expansion grant is going to the Wisconsin Technical College System Board, which next meets in November, Whyte said — although he wasn’t sure if that body must approve the expansion plan or not.

I keep hearing in these articles that this $5 million grant is part of the Foxconn package, but all I can find is $20 million set aside in 2019 to go to the Department of Workforce Development. Even worse, there doesn’t seem to be any requirement for that $20 million to be added to the Department of Workforce Development’s budget, which means that some other program or benefits could be cut to pay for it (given the nearly $1 billion structural budget deficit coming up, this is a very real possibility).

Funny how this reality doesn’t seem to be mentioned in the article.,, and neither is the reality that Gateway Tech likely has to hire more staff as a result of this, and has no extra money set aside to pay for it. Oh, and did people in Racine County know that they’d be seeing this headline in their paper 1 week after the Fox-con was signed into law? “Racine County sales tax increase considered in the wake of Foxconn.”

County officials remained mum Monday on a potential sales tax increase that could be enacted should Racine County be chosen as the site for the Foxconn plant.

The Foxconn bill, which was signed by Gov. Scott Walker on Sept. 18 in Sturtevant, contains verbiage granting the county that lands Foxconn the ability to pass an ordinance increasing the county sales tax by up to 0.5 percent.

The purpose of this increase would be “directly reducing the property tax levy,” according to the bill….

No official word on a location has been made, although Racine County, Mount Pleasant, Sturtevant and Racine Water Utility boards have met in closed session meetings to discuss a potential major development project.

Racine County officials on Monday were reluctant to give any details regarding the sales tax bill’s wording and intent, stating it is too early in the process for a discussion to occur.

Surrrre, a sales tax will be done to reduce the property tax. In reality, all a sales tax would do is try to prevent huge INcreases in property taxes in two ways.
It could cushion the problem of paying for extra costs in Racine and the rest of the county that will be a result of building all of this extra infrastructure to accommodate Foxconn (another nice subsidy for the company, by the way). And using sales tax funds to do so would keep these costs away from the strict levy limits that have been imposed on local governments by Scott Walker and the GOP-posers at the Capitol.
A sales tax also means that local property taxpayers may have less of a chance of paying more due to the fact that the Foxconn plant would be having its property taxes written off for up to 30 years under this bill.
Of course, that’ll come as little consolation for the locals who have been one of the few counties to resist instilling a 0.5% sales tax (remember, voters in this area recalled a State Senator for backing the Miller Park tax in 1996, which is 5 times less). And you can bet most of those people that will be paying the extra sales tax won’t be working at Foxconn, and won’t be getting much in terms of extra business due to the Fox-con.

So already, it doesn’t seem to be a good end of the Fox-con bargain if you actually live in Race-seen County. But if the people that area don’t want to pay an extra sales tax in addition to the general tax dollars that’ll be sent to directly benefit this boondoggle, and they don't want to be left on the hook for higher property taxes due to TIFs and other infrastructure. then maybe they should stop voting for Republicans like Robbin’ Vos, Walker, Wangaard, and Ryan. Just a thought.