Walker’s Foxconn Flop Tour Continues
Foreign corp. buys vacant buildings as it rolls back plans for high-tech facility
EAU CLAIRE, WI – While Gov. Walker continues to tout his multi-billion-dollar state tax giveaway for Foxconn, the foreign mega-corporation has quietly rolled back its plans for a high-tech manufacturing plant. Having originally promised a massive cutting-edge Gen 10.5 factory near Racine, Foxconn is now focusing on a much smaller Gen 6 facility and a handful of smaller satellite sites around the state. Despite the scaled-back plans, the public cost of this project has increased from an original estimate of $3 billion to over $4.5 billion.
“The cost to taxpayers has already increased 50 percent in the few short months since Foxconn was announced,” said Senate Democratic Leader Jennifer Shilling (D-La Crosse). “While Gov. Walker celebrates yet another taxpayer-funded subsidy for Foxconn, our local schools continue to struggle, our roads are falling apart and we’re seeing an unprecedented spike in farm bankruptcies.”
Foxconn has become the largest state taxpayer giveaway to a foreign corporation in U.S. history. Gov. Walker has increasingly highlighted his tax breaks for corporations in recent months to distract from his record of stagnant wages, an economy that ranks dead last for start-up companies and a trade war that is threatening thousands of Wisconsin jobs. Farmers and small businesses in western Wisconsin are being hit especially hard by the Foxconn tax giveaways as Republicans divert nearly $100 million in state funding away from local roads in order to accelerate Foxconn related projects in southeast Wisconsin.
Numerous media outlets have highlighted a pattern of Foxconn’s broken promises on economic development. The Washington Post detailed a series of “splashy jobs announcements” from Foxconn that promised thousands of jobs and billions in investments that never materialized in Pennsylvania, Indonesia, India, Vietnam and Brazil.
NOTE: This press release was submitted to Urban Milwaukee and was not written by an Urban Milwaukee writer. While it is believed to be reliable, Urban Milwaukee does not guarantee its accuracy or completeness.
More about the Foxconn Facility
- With 1,114 Employees, Foxconn Earns $9 Million in Tax Credits - Joe Schulz - Dec 13th, 2024
- Mount Pleasant, Racine in Legal Battle Over Water After Foxconn Failure - Evan Casey - Sep 18th, 2024
- Biden Hails ‘Transformative’ Microsoft Project in Mount Pleasant - Sophie Bolich - May 8th, 2024
- Microsoft’s Wisconsin Data Center Now A $3.3 Billion Project - Jeramey Jannene - May 8th, 2024
- We Energies Will Spend $335 Million on Microsoft Development - Evan Casey - Mar 6th, 2024
- 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
Read more about Foxconn Facility here
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