Consultants Make $5.3 Million on Foxconn
Consultants and firms paid millions by state, county and village governments.
When state and local governments are subsidizing a massive project like Foxconn, you can bet that various consultants will be scrambling to win contracts and get aboard the gravy train. To check out just who has been hired and how much they are getting paid, The Journal Times of Racine “asked Mount Pleasant, Racine County and [state] WEDC officials how many tax dollars were spent on consultants for the Foxconn project” from 2017 to October 2019.
The total as of October was more than $5.3 million for services “ranging from communications to finance and legal advice,” the story reported, including four payouts by the Village of Mount Pleasant:
- $2.26 million to the law firm of von Briesen and Roper, s.c., which has been working on land acquisition for the village and other legal matters
- $684,000 to the Milwaukee PR company Mueller Communications LLC, the village’s communication consultant
- $534,700 to Kapur & Associates, the village’s project director on the Foxconn development
- $114,000 to Ehlers, Inc., financial adviser to the village on Foxconn.
There have been five payouts by Racine County:
- $575,000 to Reinhart Boerner Van Deuren, s.c., more than for legal services
- $545,000 toward an underwriter discount related to bonding the county did on the project
- $259,000 to PFM for financial services
- $138,000 to Quarles & Brady LLP for legal services
- $18,500 to Moody’s Corp. for financial services.
And three payouts by the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation:
- $177,000 to Foley & Lardner LLP, for legal services
- $16,500 to Baker Tilly for “third-party analysis”
- $2,500 to Display Supply Chain Consultants, LLC for a “display industry tutorial.”
“Not included” in these figures, the story notes, “is the cost associated with the man-hours that regular staff members from each of the governmental entities dedicate to the project.”
Typically these kind of consulting costs paid to private entities are included in government projections of the likely costs for a project. But the Foxconn project’s size and specifications have changed so many times that it may be difficult to determine whether some of these costs are an add-on to the total cost.
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More about the Foxconn Facility
- Foxconn Will Get State Subsidy For 2022 - Joe Schulz - Dec 11th, 2023
- Mount Pleasant Approves Microsoft Deal on Foxconn Land - Evan Casey - Nov 28th, 2023
- Mount Pleasant Deal With Microsoft Has No Public Subsidies - Evan Casey - Nov 14th, 2023
- Microsoft, State Announce Massive Data Center Expansion, Land Purchase - Joe Schulz - Nov 11th, 2023
- Gov. Evers Announces Microsoft Makes Major Investment in Wisconsin - Gov. Tony Evers - Nov 10th, 2023
- State Can’t Regulate We Energies $100 Million Project for Microsoft - Joe Schulz - Sep 20th, 2023
- Foxconn Selling Green Bay, Eau Claire ‘Centers’ - Joe Schulz - Aug 16th, 2023
- Murphy’s Law: Foxconn Deal Is Still Costing Taxpayers - Bruce Murphy - Jul 6th, 2023
- Microsoft Will Pay $50 Million For Mount Pleasant Data Center Site - Evan Casey - Apr 20th, 2023
- Microsoft Data Center Proposed for Foxconn Land - Evan Casey - Mar 29th, 2023
Read more about Foxconn Facility here
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