Wisconsin governor wants to renegotiate Foxconn deal, says promised jobs unlikely
Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers is calling for the state to renegotiate its deal with Foxconn, arguing that the Taiwan-based manufacturer has broken its end of the agreement and won't be able to create the 13,000 jobs it once promised.
Image Credit: Mike De Sisti/Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
"Clearly the deal that was struck is no longer in play and so we will be working with individuals at Foxconn and of course with [the Wisconsin Economic Development Corp.] to figure out how a new set of parameters should be negotiated," Evers told news outlets including the Journal Sentinel.
The current arrangement offers Foxconn up to $4 billion in state and local handouts in exchange for a factory in Mount Pleasant, as well as a variety of satellite offices. Evers noted that the company is "downsizing the footprint of what they're doing," making it "difficult to imagine" the firm hitting 13,000 jobs.
"I think we're at a point now where we're relatively confident that the original footprint of that project is going to be much smaller but it seems to be a footprint that everybody agrees is likely," the governor added.
Foxconn's Wisconsin project was started under Republican Gov. Scott Walker with the support of President Donald Trump. Evers, a Democrat, won an election in November partly under the promise that he would hold Foxconn accountable for its lack of progress. Meaningful construction has yet to start at the factory and multiple satellite offices are still unoccupied.
Walker effectively sabotaged Evers' power in the matter before leaving office. He signed a bill moving Foxconn's liaison out of the governor's office into the WEDC, while simultaneously making it impossible for Evers to choose a new WEDC CEO until this September.
The factory was originally announced as an LCD production plant, with brief speculation that Apple could become a client. At one point Foxconn admitted it couldn't build LCDs in Wisconsin and stay competitive, and since then promises have shifted to include "AI 8K+5G" research.
Foxconn's development progress has been so slow that the company has yet to meet targets necessary for job creation or investment subsidies. Racine County and Mount Pleasant, however, have already borrowed some $350 million towards buying land and building infrastructure.
Image Credit: Mike De Sisti/Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
"Clearly the deal that was struck is no longer in play and so we will be working with individuals at Foxconn and of course with [the Wisconsin Economic Development Corp.] to figure out how a new set of parameters should be negotiated," Evers told news outlets including the Journal Sentinel.
The current arrangement offers Foxconn up to $4 billion in state and local handouts in exchange for a factory in Mount Pleasant, as well as a variety of satellite offices. Evers noted that the company is "downsizing the footprint of what they're doing," making it "difficult to imagine" the firm hitting 13,000 jobs.
"I think we're at a point now where we're relatively confident that the original footprint of that project is going to be much smaller but it seems to be a footprint that everybody agrees is likely," the governor added.
Foxconn's Wisconsin project was started under Republican Gov. Scott Walker with the support of President Donald Trump. Evers, a Democrat, won an election in November partly under the promise that he would hold Foxconn accountable for its lack of progress. Meaningful construction has yet to start at the factory and multiple satellite offices are still unoccupied.
Walker effectively sabotaged Evers' power in the matter before leaving office. He signed a bill moving Foxconn's liaison out of the governor's office into the WEDC, while simultaneously making it impossible for Evers to choose a new WEDC CEO until this September.
The factory was originally announced as an LCD production plant, with brief speculation that Apple could become a client. At one point Foxconn admitted it couldn't build LCDs in Wisconsin and stay competitive, and since then promises have shifted to include "AI 8K+5G" research.
Foxconn's development progress has been so slow that the company has yet to meet targets necessary for job creation or investment subsidies. Racine County and Mount Pleasant, however, have already borrowed some $350 million towards buying land and building infrastructure.
Comments
But sure, I'm happy our largest employer is Walmart and not GM or US Steel.
How many times have you been working on a tough project that had gotten into the "death march" or "trench warfare" grind only to have management start looking for ways to harvest the "low hanging fruit" just to deliver somewhat of a victory sooner rather than later? As it turns out, the easiest to harvest "low hanging fruit" is the fruit that has already fallen from the tree and is rotting on the ground. So that's what you start picking up. The deal that Wisconsin cut with Foxconn is a bushel of rotten fruit, but what the heck, at least someone got to taste the champagne and cake and fondle a golden shovel in front of the cameras.
Just deal with the aftermath and move on. I just hope that whatever contract was signed has contingencies all over the place in case Foxconn doesn't keep up to their side of the deal.
This is where a politician that was saavy with technology would have been handy. I myself would not have trusted any asian company that does what Foxconn does to say they can bring manufacturing jobs into Wisconsin. American labor is just too expensive. The politicians regardless of partisan just saw an opportunity to look good in front of the camera.
Now the city will have lost many billions in tax revenue and many tens of thousands of lost jobs thanks to idiot politicians like that dumb bartender from the Bronx, AOC, who actually thought that there was millions of dollars lying around someplace that the city has now saved and can now be spent on other projects. You can't fix stupid.
He kills any good will with China and Taiwan (where Foxconn is located) and deals are aborted.
I hope Trumpers take note. He is killing the Earth, and is a deal-breaker, not deal-maker.
In the end NY will be out $20B, plus the additional taxes they would have collected from Businesses who would have popped up around the area to support all the people who were working at Amazon. How smart was that. I personally thought it was stupid for Amazon to set up shop in NYC, there were far better choice than the hell that NYC is for companies doing business there.
You could argue if Amazon was actually bringing 25,000 jobs like the 13,000 in Wisconsin, I think everyone from day one was skeptical about 13,000 high paying jobs in the middle of Wisconsin since the manufacturing most likely would have been automated and the support for this does not required 13,000 jobs.