So here’s the deal. Wisconsin gives Foxconn $3 billion in tax incentives over 15 years, provided they meet their performance targets, and in return Wisconsin gets a manufacturing facility that will have a $7 billion annual impact on Wisconsin’s economy.
The factory will eventually employ 13,000 workers earning on average $53,875 plus benefits. The new Foxconn facility will bring 22,000 “indirect and induced jobs” to the state. In addition, the construction of the new Foxconn facility will mean 10,000 construction jobs as well as 6,000 indirect jobs.
Let’s compare that to “the one that got away.”
Wisconsin Democrats will never forgive Governor Scott Walker for rejecting the proposed high-speed rail between Milwaukee and Madison. That project would have cost the federal government $810 million. That amount did not include local costs for building stations, the cost of former Governor Jim Doyle’s secret train deals with Talgo, and other ongoing costs.
Despite Democratic false claims that the high-speed rail (which was slower than taking a car) would lead to more economic development, that project would have only created 55 permanent jobs.
It’s amazing how many jobs the private sector can create while manufacturing 21st century technology for consumers compared to the government using 19th century technology to create a service that would have to be subsidized by the taxpayers. We’ll take the factory manufacturing LCD screens over Democratic toy trains.
