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Foxconn Is Reconsidering Plan For Wisconsin Factory (cnn.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The New York Times: Foxconn, the giant Taiwan-based company that announced plans for a $10 billion display-making factory in Wisconsin, now says it is rethinking the project's focus because of "new realities" in the global marketplace (Warning source may be paywalled; alternative source). The company said Wednesday that it remained committed to creating as many as 13,000 jobs in Wisconsin, and continued to "actively consider opportunities" involving flat-screen technology. But it said it was also "examining ways for Wisconsin's knowledge workers to promote research and development." "The global market environment that existed when the project was first announced has changed," Foxconn said in a statement. "As our plans are driven by those of our customers, this has necessitated the adjustment of plans for all projects, including Wisconsin." But the company said its presence in Wisconsin remained a priority, and said it was "broadening the base of our investment" there. The statement followed a Reuters report quoting Louis Woo, a special assistant to Foxconn's chairman, Terry Gou, as saying that the costs of manufacturing screens for televisions and other consumer products are too high in the United States. "In terms of TV, we have no place in the U.S.," Mr. Woo told Reuters. "We can't compete." Some Wisconsin Republicans blamed the company's change in plans on the election of Gov. Tony Evers, a Democrat, to succeed Mr. Walker, a Republican, in November. In a joint statement, Assembly Speaker Robin Vos and the Senate majority leader, Scott Fitzgerald, said it was "not surprising Foxconn would rethink building a manufacturing plant in Wisconsin under the Evers administration." The lawmakers added: "The company is reacting to the wave of economic uncertainty that the new governor has brought with his administration."
Have you seen the deal that Wisconsin was going to give them at the expense of the taxpayers? No one was going to benefit from that arrangement except for Foxconn. They could have put all that money towards encouraging tech development in their state instead.
This just gave them an excuse to go all out, instead of downsizing their overly ambitious plans, which despite the 3+ billion in tax incentives wasn't going to add more than... 1000? jobs in the near term future, and probably would never add the full 13000 jobs that was promised.
But the election of a Democrat to replace him gives them both an excuse not to lose face and blame it on the incoming administration while being able to abort their failed project that would have otherwise made both Walker/future Republican candidates as well as Foxconn look incompetent or untrustworthy.
The loss of potential jobs is going to hurt Wisconsin in the short term but if the people can support each other in the meanwhile it will work out better for them in the long term when they aren't subsidizing companies to the detriment of their local and state tax revenue, necessary for all the services they might need, including unemployment if those jobs don't work out.
Personally I would like to see the federal government stop giving out state aid and only take the money required to operate the federal government and the armed services themselves, and leave the state level infrastructure and planning to the states. That way when a state fucks themselves up they have only themselves to blame, whether that state is California, New York, Florida or Wisconsin.
See title.
Yes, Trump got played like a baby by Foxconn. They roped him like a baby calf and he was more than happy to buy their ridiculous claims.
Despite the article saying specifically that it was the election of a Democrat that changed their mind?
You sure about that? Only mention of it being politically related (and not economically) was this part:
Some Wisconsin Republicans blamed the company's change in plans on the election of Gov. Tony Evers, a Democrat
Wait....One side is blaming the other for all the problems?! WOW! I'm shocked! Shocked! ....Well, not that shocked.
The contract failed an audit, it didn't require the employee work in Wisconsin to count as a worker at Wisconsin, it only needed them to be paid out of that office. Foxconn would have transferred their US employees payroll to Wisconsin to take advantage of the tax break.
https://dailyreporter.com/2018/12/20/audit-faults-plans-to-credit-foxconn-for-work-outside-state/
"Wisconsin’s economic-development agency needs to modify procedures to ensure tax credits aren’t awarded for Foxconn Technology Group employees who don’t do work in the state, which would violate state law and the state’s contract with the company, an audit released Wednesday said....The Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation incorrectly wrote guidelines that would allow Foxconn employees who are not doing work in the state, but who are paid in Wisconsin, to be included in the tally, the audit said."
And for the workers, well they were planning to bring in Chinese workers:
https://www.wsj.com/articles/foxconn-considers-bringing-chinese-personnel-to-wisconsin-as-u-s-labor-market-tightens-1541505600
"Foxconn Technology Group is considering bringing in personnel from China to help staff a large facility under construction in southern Wisconsin as it struggles to find engineers and other workers in one of the tightest labor markets in the U.S."
It didn't pass the sniff test. It looked like one giant tax game for Foxconn.
Under the new Republican corporate tax deal, it's cheaper to earn the money abroad, and repatriate that money at the 8% repatriation tax rate into the US rather than earn it in the US (at 21% corporation tax), so Foxconns tax deal isn't as sweet as it would have been.
... and it's well known here that Foxconn was never really going to bring 13,000 jobs to Wisconsin, because of what they did in Pennsylvania. The whole thing was a stunt to help get Gov Walker and Trump get reelected. It failed, Walker lost in November. Now we'll see what happens to President Shutdown.
I live in Wisconsin, and I voted to elect Governor Evers (and against Trump). The Foxconn deal was a huge mistake. As others have noted, the state investment doesn't justify the jobs created. Unfortunately, it's probably too late to renege on it, even though the governor is probably tempted to (the legislature is still Republican-controlled, but apparently he could do it by pulling environmental permits). There have already been massive infrastructure investments and the use of eminent domain to obtain properties. I-94 between Milwaukee and Chicago is essentially being completely rebuilt right now (it's a pain, too, because we deal with much heavier traffic whenever I go to Chicago or to visit my family in Ohio.
On a more human note, my brother-in-law just got hired by them as an engineer (and yes, he's from Wisconsin, not Taiwan or the PRC) He is spending the next several months (at least until May, and this started around Jan. 1) working in Taiwan. They've hired a ton of professional staff. I'm in a graduate program at a Milwaukee university in computer science and they have been recruiting there. I don't know about manufacturing workers, but if this deal blows up, there's going to be a lot of people who are ALREADY working there who are going to get the shaft.
This deal may have a silver lining, however, because many people would like to see Milwaukee connected to Chicago to have SE Wisconsin essentially become part of Chicagoland. The economic benefits of that could be big. Increased rail service linking the two cities could be a byproduct of this project, which would potentially allow more Milwaukee residents to work in Chicago (and vice versa). We were going to get that with the last democratic governor but Walker pulled out of the deal because trains are for communists. If other companies came to the same region (which is a great location, because you are about 1 hour from OHare and a huge intermodal facility) it could end up being a positive. I'm not optimistic about that because I distrust everyone who was involved in the original deal.
Unless we somehow managed to change our voting system to use Ranked Choice Voting. It worked in Maine a few months ago. Granted, I'm more likely to see pigs fly, unless the Dems get really scared about another 3rd party candidate screwing things up for 2020.
How naive are you to believe any politicians words without investigating the truth behind them
It isn't naivete. It's desperation.
If you figure you've got a 10% shot of a deal such as this working if you vote one way, and a 0% shot of any deal if you vote the other, you take the 10%.
This is why the Clinton plan that amounted to "thoughts and prayers" for the rust belt did not play very well in the rust belt. Sure, there's plenty of racists and sexists and people eating up Russian propaganda. But those weren't reachable anyway. The 5% more that Clinton needed to win looked at 10% chance vs 0% chance and went with the 10%.
This is why she lost. She told a bunch of 40 something blue collar guys to go back to college for advanced degrees. The amount of cluelessness on display there is astonishing.
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