Looking at the Foxconn Deal from a Wisconsin Perspective

Aug. 15, 2017

4:48 p.m.

Photo Credit: Prachatai (Flickr CC)

Every single elected official is interested and willing to help businesses build and create family supporting jobs here in Wisconsin. That’s because our job growth has trailed the national average for 22 straight quarters, every single quarter since Gov. Scott Walker created the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation (WEDC). There is real desperation because there is real need. But that doesn’t mean we need to give away the farm (literally) for the big fish that falls into our lap. We can work hard and build the businesses we have with investments in education, training, infrastructure and our assets as a state—like the environment.

We all love Wisconsin because it is such a beautiful area in which to live, raise a family and retire. Every corner of our state has pristine natural areas we all use for recreation, hunting and other leisure activities. Sacrificing those natural areas as a part of the Foxconn deal is foolish. Directly putting our water, air and environment at risk is bad public policy. The give-away-our-environment attitude with this deal also opens the door to exempt future economic development deals from environmental approval rules and is simply unacceptable. We have dozens of examples of Wisconsin businesses that have grown and flourished without dumping waste and diverting streams and sacrificing Great Lakes waters.

Is Wisconsin Getting a Fair Deal?

Next, we need to examine the deal. Is it really the best we could get for our taxpayer investment, or does it reflect the political desperation some leaders feel because of their own failures? Any taxpayer-funded investment should demonstrate the best return on investment we can get, build family supporting jobs to replace the union living wage manufacturing jobs we have lost, and have real recovery claw backs if the business packs up and moves, or if they automate and eliminate jobs in the process. Gov. Walker and WEDC do not have an awesome track record with recovery when companies outsource jobs, and the potential replacement of supported jobs with automation is a brave new world for all of us.

The deal does have benchmarks before funds are released, which is good, but lacks claw backs if jobs are outsourced or automated; the new state Assembly version is just the same. Claw backs require businesses to pay back taxpayer costs if the business fails to keep the contract. Wisconsin needs to be able to at least try to take on Foxconn if they damage our environment and our economy. Foxconn is not a Wisconsin company building their future here; it is a Taiwanese company looking to avoid President Donald Trump’s tariff threats, and we are just the state with the best deal for them.

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We cannot let the relentless pursuit of jobs take away what makes Wisconsin our home. We can do better.

If you would like more information on Foxconn and special session Senate Bill 1, contact my office by phone at 608-266-6670 or via e-mail to sen.erpenbach@legis.wi.gov.

Jon Erpenbach is the Wisconsin State Senator for the 27th District.

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Comments (7)

Comment Feed

Wisconsin Public Television's "Here and Now" also ...

Wisconsin Public Television's "Here and Now" also mentioned this, the strong likelihood that they will not recoup their investment. This is still all about "job creation", Walker and Trump fulfilling campaign promises but at what cost?Step back... what is a "job"?To a good 35% of Wisconsin, it is being invited into America's white-supremacist Capitalist economy... dang right they must exclude Milwaukee's northside (black) and near southside (brown). When those others are not included, they disappear either on a greyhound bus or in a pine box coffin. (They are not the only ones to exclude, people who get their kicks on other substances than alcohol, people who vote blue, or use "rainbow" as a flag.)To others, it is a trading of your precious time, energy, integrity and good health in servitude of someone else who is getting the better end of the bargain. Made all the worse when even 100K is not enough pay to cover being held responsible for mistakes. (suicides at Foxconn plants?)To still others, it is a selling out of what nature has provided over thousands of years in only a short time-frame of a few generations. Call it our clean water, left-over melt from our ice age, along with out wetlands, the only way nature can clean water that is already on the ground. A lake-shore with beaches and million-dollar homes with chemical-enhanced lawns cleans nothing. Look at the complaints of stinky lakes with algae blooms.More direct to the topic of "investment by Wisconsin" it means taking private money already collected as taxes from our middle and working classes and handing it to the rich, paying them to "build it and they will come" like a "field of dreams", and paying them to enhance the local paychecks (about 17%?). You can bet that a lions-share of the investment is leaving Wisconsin as profits to pay stockholder dividends and Foxconn HQ executive pay.These jobs may not last if OTHER people paid better than its workers do not keep buying the products made. If other states do not stay paid better than Wisconsin, then these markets cannot last. The plant will close early, and as only a contractor, can easily go bankrupt, still leaving Wisconsin on the hook.These jobs will not last until China, Mexico, and India has risen to the same pay-scale that Wisconsin has fallen to, and then what will those jobs be worth?But it is all good if it gets Walker re-elected, right?

WaukeshaGuy more than 9 years ago

Just run the numbers. How long will it take for WI...

Just run the numbers. How long will it take for WI to recoup its tax break? Take a second to think about how the TPP could factor into this had it passed. Taiwan could sue the USA for lost profit if the US backed out of the deal.

Stumpy more than 9 years ago

In many states, the way America was made great was...

In many states, the way America was made great was by condemning and taking the property needed to build "beneficial" projects like this... highways, gov't buildings, even private-owned resorts for public use that promised "jobs" in exchange for separating smiling customers from their money. Usually taking the land of property owning minorities (blacks, native Americans, etc.) to ensure financial solvency for the designated operator. This was common until Supreme Courts put a stop to this.Even Walt Disney World in Florida was made something like this, it was not Disney Corporation that bought the low-valued everglades land, more like various shell buyers used to prevent the swampland owner from knowing that they should have held out for a higher price. They even had to pull strings with the state of Florida to "kill" the fauna for miles around so Disney could have a mosquito free park for its customers.Kind of ugly how "prosperity" and "greatness" was truly created. As a self-described "radical Republican" told me years ago, "money is not created, it is only moved from one pocket to another", (and not always willingly by all involved.)

WaukeshaGuy more than 9 years ago

The wealthy who control who gets favorable media i...

The wealthy who control who gets favorable media in our elections see this as not a "waste of taxpayer money", they only want to let the common voter hear the "waste" label when it is applied to "redistribution down". Instead, the wealthy see this as returning tax money to the important people and organizations it was taken from, "redistribution up" is okay to them. Collecting tax dollars from the renting working class or the Middle Class who only owns personal homes is not a problem. All money needs to be steered to those who own money-making businesses! (Redistribution "up" to wealthy pockets)That includes public money (taxes) AND private money that is only profit fodder from both voters and non-voters living a "work and spend" life.On one hand, I would love to see Foxconn be set up here. What Wisconsin needs is a large company that makes products which are sold mostly outside of our state, and then is paid out as decent wages to Wisconsin workers who patronize other small Wisconsin businesses. That is how our Wisconsin-American life is made great.That is the catch, "decent wages", and "Local workers", PLUS, preserving our pristine environment and way of life, (including "segregation" from others "poorer", not necessarily different by skin color or religion.)What Walker has been trying to sell is one of 2 things:- "We have the most skilled low-paid workers" ... Or- "We have the lowest paid skilled workers" ... choose your poison.(that is why unions had to be broken, end opportunity for the "un-chosen".)A "Silicon Valley" here can get away with 1/3 the income they would have to pay for the same skill-set from the southern out-skirts of the real Silicon Valley.

WaukeshaGuy more than 9 years ago

Hate to say it but I think this deal is going to t...

Hate to say it but I think this deal is going to turn out badly for Walker, Racine, Republicans and Democrats. Oh, the Democrats will gloat but it will still turn out bad. My opinion is at some point, everything they do will become obsolete like when Motorola opened a first generation cell phone plant near the state line in Illinois. Since their investment will be minimal, they can walk away. Am I wrong?

djlresearch more than 9 years ago

Somewhat agreed.We in the simple-thinking Wisconsi...

Somewhat agreed.We in the simple-thinking Wisconsin Middle and working classes know that we want to own the cash-cow, we think that is the only way to guarantee control of that money-maker. Lease the cow and use bankruptcy to bail out of feeding it when the milk stops or nobody wants to pay full price for "old milk". (read in any innuendo of "why buy the cow when you get the milk for free" to understand this.)Back in the 80's, I was seeing Big Automotive sell their Capital property of factory buildings and factory assembly machines, then turn right around and lease it back again. Foolish? To the average Joe, yes. But their accountants had a plan.Foxconn will build it, then sell it and lease it back. Then when that product line eventually goes out of favor, or maybe they destroy the environment there, they can quickly abandon it and not be stuck with either the clean-up or the pension cost of displaced workers that were promised retirement coverage. -- The old GM sure did this to get out of their obligations, the new GM only came away with the name, none of the baggage of old GM's broken promises.

WaukeshaGuy more than 9 years ago

You pretty much hit the point. Will look like a g...

You pretty much hit the point. Will look like a good deal for a real estate investor leasing it back. We've seen this trick played too many times haven't we?

djlresearch more than 9 years ago