Foxconn still contributing near nothing, and can't get the manufacturing it was supposed to get

Here’s what happens when one Wisconsin-based GOP debacle meets another.

Oshkosh Corp. sought a lease at a Foxconn building to manufacture postal trucks before moving the work to South Carolina https://t.co/h7j14WYdad via ⁦@CorriHess⁩

— Molly Beck (@MollyBeck) March 28, 2022

Oshkosh Corp.'s Oshkosh Defense division wanted to build tens of thousands of vehicles in one of Foxconn’s buildings in Mount Pleasant.

Had the deal gone through, more than 1,000 employees would have worked at the site. Instead, the vehicles will be manufactured in South Carolina.

U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson told several reporters on Feb. 18 that Oshkosh Corp. made inquiries about renting the Foxconn facility but was rebuffed.

"They had to find an existing building," Johnson said. "They tried to rent the Foxconn building."

So what went wrong? Representatives for Johnson and Oshkosh Truck aren’t telling much.

"The senator spoke with both union leaders and Oshkosh corporate management to gather more information on the status of the contract and employment in Wisconsin," the spokeswoman said, adding that Johnson believes the project faces problems because of the Biden administration and environmental regulations for electric vehicles. …

Oshkosh Defense looked at multiple sites in several states, including Wisconsin, but ultimately chose Spartanburg, South Carolina because the facility gives the company "the best ability to meet the needs of the USPS," said Oshkosh Corp. spokeswoman Alexandra Hittle.

"With the support of several local economic development corporations, we looked throughout Wisconsin to find an existing building that was large enough to build this vehicle," Hittle said. "The manufacturing space needed to be larger than any of our existing facilities — a minimum of 825,000 square feet. Wisconsin simply did not have any available buildings."

But wait, that Foxconn building allegedly has 1,000,000 square feet, so why wouldn’t that have worked?

These [non]-answers don’t cut it, and if we had a functioning Legislature, we’d have public hearings demanding real reasons as to why Oshkosh isn’t building these vehicles in our state. And doesn’t it seem like RoJo is more concerned that Oshkosh’s Wisconsin workers would be unionized and making environmentally-conscious vehicles over the fact that WE WOULD BE MAKING THINGS IN WISCONSIN.

There are a lot of questions that remain about Foxconn, nearly 5 years after this boondoggle scheme was first announced. But the guy making $28K a month to sell this project claims that great things are just around the corner.

"We've put in a lot of infrastructure folks," said Claude Lois, Foxconn's project manager hired by Mount Pleasant. "We've sized this at the time for Foxconn Generation 10, but today, actually because of all the work we did we are sitting pretty good for all the work we did for the future."

Lois spoke during a special meeting of the Racine County Board and the Mount Pleasant Village Board Tuesday — the first time a public update on Foxconn has been given since 2019. Foxconn representatives were invited to participate but declined.

Foxconn didn’t want to talk about this? Funny, that.

Is this picture from 2017? Or today?

Those not making 6 figures a year off of this scam aren’t buying it.

"People gave up their homes for a $10 billion investment and 13,000 jobs, not for speculation as to what might get built there," said Mahoney, who attended the meeting.

The Village of Mount Pleasant borrowed $911 million to buy those houses and other land plots, upgrade local infrastructure, and provide other gifts to Foxconn. In addition, the State of Wisconsin threw in hundreds of millions of dollars to upgrade highways in Robbin’ Vos’ district in and around the Foxconn site.

But don’t worry taxpayers, you’re covered in case Foxconn continues to be empty fields and buildings!

According to the agreement, the money will be recouped over 30 years with funding and property tax revenue from Foxconn and other businesses in the district….

Local officials have repeatedly said they are protected because Foxconn must make minimum tax payments equal to about $30 million beginning in 2023, regardless of the project’s completion status.

If you believe that Foxconn is going to be shelling out those funds to the yokels in Racine County next year…..you might have been stupid enough to buy into the Fox-con in the first place.

And if/when Foxconn refuses to pay and leaves town, state taxpayers could face with a bill of more than $300 million to bail out Mount Pleasant and other local yokels who sunk so much into this white elephant. In addition, it’s possible/likely those communities go bankrupt and tens of thousands of people see their services and quality of life thrown into the lurch.

FOR WHAT? I’ll tell you what – to try to generate PR BS from a desperate Governor and President who cared more about headlines and photo ops than what would happen in the years that followed.

Foxconn is a classic example of “I’ll be gone, you’ll be gone”, and the rest of us are going to be cleaning up from what those grifters have left behind for years.