Wisconsin Lawmakers Vote To Pay Foxconn $3 Billion To Get New Factory (arstechnica.com)

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: The Wisconsin Assembly voted 59-30 on Thursday to approve a bill to give incentives worth $3 billion to Taiwan-based Foxconn so that the company would open its first U.S. plant in the state. Foxconn, best known for supplying parts of Apple's iPhones, will open the $10 billion liquid-crystal display plant in 2020, according to Reuters. The bill still has to be approved by a joint finance committee and the state Senate. Both houses of Wisconsin's legislature are controlled by Republicans, and the deal is supported by Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, a Republican who negotiated the deal. The vote was largely, but not entirely, along party lines. Three Democrats joined 56 Republicans in supporting the deal. Two Republicans and 28 Democrats voted against it. Opponents said the deal wasn't a good use of taxpayer funds. The $3 billion incentives package includes about $2.85 billion in cash payments from taxpayers and tax breaks valued at about $150 million. The state is also waiving certain environmental rules.

Comments

What happened to ...

[140Mandak262Jamuna]

Government should not pick winners and losers.

Only the Republican party crony capitalists should pick winners and losers using tax payer funds.

Poor American down with medical bills due to some high way accident? Shit happens. deal with it.

Taiwanese investors asking for 5 million dollars per job created? Here are the keys to the treasury.

Re:What happened to ...

[Gavagai80]

Democrats -- though plenty corrupt themselves -- very consistently show a less extreme desire to turn government into nothing but way of funneling money to companies. Some of their spending is on things the public actually gets to own and reap the rewards of, rather than spending tax dollars purely to privatize the profits to companies.

Just because both groups are bad does not mean there's an equivalence. It's easy to see the differences, and easy to see that it doesn't entirely boil down to opposing each other "just because".

Re:Suckers.

[MoarSauce123]

I think they target 30 years. Too bad that the factory will close within 10 years. Foxconn already preps for that claiming that there is not enough skilled labor in that region. So why the heck build a factory there? Ah yes, they get to keep all the government handouts.

Re:That ain't hay

[Threni]

The US government does this all the time. Talk badly about "socialism" when the topic is poor people, healthcare etc, but take money from those people to pay billionaires and wealthy corporations and banks so that they can continue to profit.

It's too much money

[rsilvergun]

They were going to get bought off. The best part? It's $500k per job. It's an enormous waste. Basically more socialism for the wealthy and dog eat dog capitalism for the working class.

Re:That ain't hay

[swb]

The math is crazy. They could pay 13,000 people $15,384 per year for 15 years for $3 billion. Which I know doesn't make any sense, especially considering the $3 billion in cash isn't a pre-existing sum and probably represents some kind of long term payroll tax refund, which is why its tied to the employment and projected wage numbers.

You would think, though, that if they were willing to lay out that kind of money as an incentive it would be better in some kind of startup fund or small business capital expansion program. The same $3 billion could provide $1 million per year to 207 small businesses or startups for 15 years.

The latter seems like it would be more likely to create a stronger and more diverse economy, especially if the money helps grow established small businesses.

so many questions

[clovis]

this has a very long payback, and my first question is, why would we think that a factory making a single electronic component would have any use ten, fifteen, or twenty years from now? What is the plan, or could it even be repurposed if the technology changes, I.e. OLED screens vs LED screens.

Are we looking at another Solyndra?
Does this project have the smell of wrongness that followed the Pfizer at New London project from the beginning?

Re:That ain't hay

[Maxo-Texas]

Is the wisconsin government republican

Do they run on promises of lower taxes and fewer government handouts?

Is blatant (and stupid) hypocrisy worse than merely being wrong about your projections?

Especially when, unexpectedly, a dozen states do everything they can to sabotage health care for their own citizens, raising the costs and lowering the savings?

And did this conversation have *anything* to do with the ACA (which 84% of americans preferred over every single proposal the republicans came up with).

Because that would be stealing money

[rsilvergun]

from the taxpayer and giving it to people who don't do any work. What gives you the right to tax me and make me pay so you don't have to work? That's just theft, plain and simple. But these foxconn guys? They're creating jobs. This isn't a handout, it's an investment.

Or so the argument goes. The folks who actually make it to the polls to vote might actually believe that. The folks that don't believe that horseshit generally have their vote suppressed. During the last election there were reports of 10 hour waits to vote in working class districts. Or any district that might go against the pro-corporate, pro-right wing party.

Basically we're a pretend Democracy. No different than North Korea really except we've got enough money to throw around that the worst of the poverty is kept at bay.