Unfortunately, as Tamarine Cornelius of the Wisconsin Budget Project reminds us, Foxconn is still going to get a ton of money from Wisconsin taxpayers, even if they never hit a jobs goal in this year or any other year.
Foxconn didn't create enough jobs to qualify for job credits in 2018. But there is $1.6 B in potential upcoming public spending on Foxconn that's unrelated to job creation, and another $1.4 B only somewhat related to job creation. From @WiBudgetProject: https://t.co/A4XIly1C8J pic.twitter.com/JY5p4YArqC
— Tamarine Cornelius (@Tamarine608) January 19, 2019
Never forget that all that money getting funneled down to the SE corner of the state could have fixed a whole lotta Scottholes in the rest of the state. And it's already falling short of the jobs Foxconn claimed it would add.
Can we just cut these guys a check for $100 mil and have them go away so we don't continue to be handcuffed by this albatross down the line?
I'd gladly give them the $100 million to go away but we also owe Mount Pleasant for 60% of infrastructure ($400 Million$) and then someone has to clean up the construction site that extends for miles and miles along I 94. I am still all for it.
ReplyDeleteMount Pleasant might be on the hook for more than that, as the Racine Journal-Times reportedover the weekend that the local subsidies related to Foxconn may now reach $912 million.
ReplyDeleteAnd as you mention, part of the Fox-con is the "moral obligation clause" that puts state taxpayers on the hook for 40% of unrecovered costs.
What a great pork project for Robbin' Vos' district, eh?
It is pork but also could destroy it in the long term when that infrastructure has to be maintained by local property taxes.
ReplyDeleteBut Vos and Walker and DeGroot and all the others who approved of that boondoggle plan to be out of office and cashing in when the bill comes due.
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