Matt Flynn Statement on the Foxconn Contract

(Madison) — Wisconsin gubernatorial candidate Matt Flynn today made the following statement criticizing the Foxconn deal as Governor Scott Walker’s corrupt Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation (WEDC) votes to sign the contract with Foxconn.

“What could make Governor Walker take such a desperate gamble? We are nearly seven years into Walker’s destructive policies to attempt to produce his ‘minimum acceptable’ 250,000 jobs. With next year’s election on the horizon, the Governor has decided to buy jobs for hundreds of thousands of dollars each. His partner is a foreign corporation known for demanding exemptions from clean water laws and driving its workers to literally jump out of windows to escape its factories in China.

“This deal is so bad that, at every turn, facts about it have been concealed or distorted. In fact, even the consultancy of Baker Tilly Virchow Krause, hired by Walker’s administration, estimates that a whopping ‘40% to 50% of the construction-period spending and ongoing jobs associated with the project could be filled by non-residents.’ Facts are inconvenient to him, so Governor Walker got the figure changed to 0%.

“For most of Wisconsin’s history, we were a state where incomes were above the national average. Yet, since Walker has been in office, our real family median incomes have been below the national average. By contrast, neighboring Minnesota has posted stronger job numbers than ours and their real median family incomes now sit nearly $5,000 higher than ours.

“Minnesota abandoned their GOP special interest policies and instead invested in their people through education and infrastructure. Those investments paid off both in higher incomes and more new business startups. This is the real source of innovation. Companies like Apple and Microsoft were enabled by big public investments in research and human capital.

Economic growth is created by investing in people, the source of all real wealth creation, not by the over-priced buying of jobs from Chinese electronics firms.

“Walker has had his chance to try to make his policies work. They didn’t. It’s time for change in Wisconsin.”

Matt Flynn is a Navy veteran, attorney, and former Chair of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin. He attended law school at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

For additional information, visit www.ForwardWithFlynn.com.

Forward with Flynn

NOTE: This press release was submitted to Urban Milwaukee and was not written by an Urban Milwaukee writer. It has not been verified for its accuracy or completeness.