(The Center Square) – The Foxconn deal, often criticized since 2018, is getting a lot of attention again following the company’s decision to sell its regional hubs in Green Bay and Eau Claire.
For a moment, you’d think it was 2018 in Wisconsin once again.
“This was predicted by anyone paying attention,” Sen. Chris Larson, D-Bay View, said on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Larson, like many Democrats in Wisconsin, is not a fan of the original Foxconn deal.
In 2018, then-Gov. Scott Walker signed a deal that promised Foxconn $3 billion in incentives for 13,000 jobs, and a $10 billion investment.
The jobs and the $10 billion investment never materialized.
This week’s announcement Foxconn is selling its never-opened regional centers in Green Bay and Eau Claire is the latest example.
“I hope this ends the economic strategy in Wisconsin of “give the corporations millions (or billions), ask little in return for our citizens, and cross your fingers that it all goes well,” Larson added in his post.
The decision to sell the buildings inGreen Bay and Eau Claire is not the end of Foxconn in Wisconsin.
Gov. Tony Evers resurrected the Foxconn deal in 2021, and negotiated Wisconsin’s state incentive package from $3 billion down to $80 million. He also negotiated the jobs threshold down from 13,000 to a little more than 1,400.
Megan Novak, state director for Americans For Prosperity in Wisconsin, agrees with Larson.
“AFP has been saying it for years: corporate welfare is bad policy. The government should not be in the business of rigging the system by picking winners and losers,” Novak told The Center Square. “But the fact of the matter is, Gov. Evers took a bad policy and made it even worse, forcing millions of our hard earned tax dollars to be siphoned off to a private company. The real loser in Gov. Evers’ renegotiated deal with Foxconn? Wisconsin taxpayers.”
Under the original deal, Foxconn never qualified for any of Wisconsin’s incentives. Under Evers’ deal, Foxconn has been paid $37 million over the past two years.
