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Businesses United States Government The Almighty Buck

Wisconsin State Legislature Signs Off On $3 Billion Foxconn Incentive Package (venturebeat.com) 158

On Thursday, legislators in the state of Wisconsin approved a nearly $3 billion incentive package for the Taiwanese electronics manufacturer, Foxconn, in exchange for it investing approximately $10 billion in the state and building a factory that could employ up to 13,000 workers. The legislation is now headed to Republican Governor Scott Walker's desk, where he is expected to give it his seal of approval. VentureBeat reports: The bill passed the Wisconsin State Assembly on a 64-31 vote, after previously passing the state senate on a 20-13 vote. The move signals the start of what will likely be an important experiment in just how much generous incentive packages can do to help create new tech hubs. Governor Walker has said that the Foxconn factory â" the company's first in the United States -- will help transform Wisconsin into "Wisconn Valley." While on a trade mission this week to Japan and South Korea, Governor Walker told reporters that many of the companies he met with on the trip were already "every interested in how they could come to Wisconsin and partner for that new ecosystem." However, there are still a few details that need to be finalized before Foxconn can start breaking ground -- most notably, where the company will build the factory. The factory was set to be built in either Kenosha or Racine County, Wisconsin, before Kenosha dropped out of the running earlier this week.
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Wisconsin State Legislature Signs Off On $3 Billion Foxconn Incentive Package

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  • by turkeydance ( 1266624 ) on Thursday September 14, 2017 @08:35PM (#55200045)
    ...now it's 13K. the trend is not your friend.
    • by xeoron ( 639412 )
      Like Bill Gates suggested, maybe we should tax the robot workers.
    • The difference is how many they'll directly hire vs indirect effects.

      A fast food place might serve 300 people at lunch. If 13,000 Foxconn employees eat burgers, they'll need 43 new fast food places to serve them. If a dozen people are working at each fast food place, that's 520 jobs making lunch for Foxconn employees. Obviously they don't all go to a fast food place every day, but that's the concept. Not just fast food either, of course, some will go to Olive Garden for lunch. On most days, there will be s

      • That seems to suggest people are being pulled from nowhere to fill these needs. Just say the factory does employ 13,000 people (it won't but anyway), the majority of them are going to live in the area anyway, they'll need a bit more gas if they drive but not 20 new stations just for them. Same with lunch, 13,000 people aren't going to pile out at once to eat in 43 eateries that ring the factory I guess. That also seems to suggest all 13k people will be there everyday and will all have the same needs. A guy
        • You're not seeing network effects. Most of the 13,000 hired at the factory have families. That's 4-5 consumers supported for every job at the factory: 65,000 people buying food, clothes, etc. That's supports at least a couple dozen restaurants, 4-5 grocery stores, and a couple department stores. That's 800 teachers needed to be hired for schools. Probably a 100-200 police. That's a few hundred construction workers to build, repair and maintain new homes. Then all of the people at those jobs will create add
        • That seems to suggest people are being pulled from nowhere to fill these needs.

          Some will change jobs in WI, leaving their old jobs open for a previously unemployed worker.

          Some will come off unemployment/welfare in WI and take a job.

          Still others may come from out of state - and take a job.

          At the end of the day 13,000 workers will be added to the WI workforce, and some number of previously unemployed workers will come of star/federal assistance programs.

        • There is no need to guess about something that has already happened - thousands of times. This has been studied to death. A new large employer does in fact spur 3 to 4 times as many jobs indirectly as the the number they hire directly.

          > already has a bank account is going to need none of that.

          People actually do like to have a bank branch near where they work. Whether they open a new account or use an existing account, people with jobs do more banking than people without jobs.

          > A guy who gets

        • > Not to mention anyone changing jobs

          Anyone who leaves their existing job is going to leave a new job opening behind, so that's still an open job.

          What it comes down to is how many jobs there are that export something from the community. Foxconn jobs are creating something that will be sold outside of the local community, bringing in cash from outside. Each export job creates three to four local jobs.

          Basically, when someone in Colorado or wherever buys an iPad, some of that money ends up paying s

    • us labor laws are better then china and living on site will = free room and board + min wage.

      • by TWX ( 665546 ) on Thursday September 14, 2017 @10:59PM (#55200505)

        US labor laws are often first-line enforced by state-level boards of labor, and there are large gaps in federal law that not all states make up. A friend of mine was having issues with an employer not allowing breaks, but it turns out that breaks are not federally mandated, nor are they mandated by this particular state either. We ended up having to take a different tack (turns out the boss had two businesses would avoid paying employees time-and-a-half overtime by switching which company they worked for during the week, this got them slammed with a requirement to pay all that OT plus some heavy fines from the state) but there's no guarantee that states will do their job to enforce workplace protections or to mandate them in the first place. Given what Wisconsin has been up to lately I would be surprised if they did enforce them adequately.

      • by pnutjam ( 523990 )
        On glassdoor, if you filter to US only, the rating drops from 2.6 to 2.5. I've heard bad things about the site in Indiana.
        https://www.glassdoor.com/Revi... [glassdoor.com]
    • So Foxconn has lower suicide rate than college campuses in the U.S.?

      College campuses in the U.S. are worse than 3rd world hellhole slave labor setups.
    • At its peak, in 2010, 18 Foxconn workers out of 1.3 million attempted suicide. Wisconsin suicide rate is about 12 per 100,000. Apparently, living in Wisconsin is already more depressing than working at Foxconn.
  • Wisconsin has a worse debt-to-GDP ratio than California.

    • by TimSSG ( 1068536 )
      Per https://www.usgovernmentdebt.u... [usgovernmentdebt.us] You are correct for state debt to state debt; but, wrong for state and local to state and local. Tim S.

      Wisconsin has a worse debt-to-GDP ratio than California.

      • Per https://www.usgovernmentdebt.u... [www.usgovernmentdebt.u] [usgovernmentdebt.us] You are correct for state debt to state debt; but, wrong for state and local to state and local. Tim S.

        OK, I"ll play. If you want compare state and local combined, then Texas has a MUCH worse debt-to-GDP ratio than California. So does Kansas, South Carolina, Arizona. In fact, using your metric, California has a lower debt-to-GDP ratio than all the states combined.

        Plus, it's California, and the weather here is absolutely perfect today.

  • What a dick (Score:4, Informative)

    by Patent Lover ( 779809 ) on Thursday September 14, 2017 @08:48PM (#55200091)
    Scott Walker doesn't want pay teachers a living wage vs. subsidizing a company that "may" create 13,000 jobs. Each job better pay about $250K for this to even remotely make sense. Who voted for this dick?
    • Re:What a dick (Score:5, Informative)

      by ShanghaiBill ( 739463 ) on Thursday September 14, 2017 @09:17PM (#55200179)

      Scott Walker doesn't want pay teachers a living wage

      The average teacher salary in Wisconsin is $53k. That is above the average salary/wage for Wisconsin, and certainly enough to live on.

      • Scott Walker doesn't want pay teachers a living wage

        The average teacher salary in Wisconsin is $53k. That is above the average salary/wage for Wisconsin, and certainly enough to live on.

        Not only that, during all that bullshit it was revealed that some teachers were making $125,000/year with benefits. That's two and a half times that national average household income. Two teachers married to each other at that pay grade would be called "rich" by most Democrat voters if they had a job other than "teacher".

        The main thing Walker and the legislature did was modify the law so that the state is no longer forced to collect union dues for the union, meaning union dues are now voluntary. Surely w

      • What's the average wage for someone with similar educational attainment and professional certification in Wisconsin? That's the apples-to-apples comparison.
      • Scott Walker doesn't want pay teachers a living wage

        The average teacher salary in Wisconsin is $53k. That is above the average salary/wage for Wisconsin, and certainly enough to live on.

        Without knowing more about the statistical distribution, this is a somewhat misleading statement due to the way averages work. Is the starting salary for new teachers $20k, but there's enough teachers with seniority making $80k to shift the average? Is that average calculated only with teachers in classrooms, or does that include principals and other administrators?

        My understanding is that many states currently facing a budget crisis are attacking our new teachers. Basically, they can't cut pensions of curr

    • by Anonymous Coward
      From the Fine Article:

      ...will initially employ 3,000 workers making an average of $53,900 a year plus benefits.

      ... it would take taxpayers around 25 years to see a return on the Foxconn investment. That’s if Foxconn does bring all 13,000 jobs for which the company would receive $2.85 billion in tax credits over 15 years,

      But don't get me wrong. I'm not a fan of this sort of Corporate Welfare. Nobody wants to give teachers raises or working poor a hand up, but we can give Foxconn $3B? Welfare is welfare. If you don't like giving money to the poor, why would you like giving it to the rich? Just where do you think that $3B comes from? Not out of thin air. Don't just blame Walker though, look at the state senators and reps who voted for it.

      You might ask who did the math too. Did they get Rick Perry to tall

      • by Anonymous Coward

        You do not seem to understand the math. You seem to think it is:

        (Foxconn + 3 Billion Taxes) > (Foxconn + 0 Billion Taxes)

        But it is really...

        (Foxconn + 0 Billion Taxes) > (0 Foxconn + 0 Billion Taxes)

        Foxconn is allowed to go to another city/state/country where they may receive equal or better incentives. If a city/state/country thinks they will benefit from Foxconn jobs, it is up to them to be competitive.

        Congratulations Wisconsin! Apparently you understand math better than many on /.

        • Re:What a dick (Score:4, Informative)

          by whoever57 ( 658626 ) on Thursday September 14, 2017 @10:05PM (#55200335) Journal

          (Foxconn + 0 Billion Taxes) > (0 Foxconn + 0 Billion Taxes)

          Nope.

          Foxconn is NOT just getting a tax cut. The state is paying cash to Foxconn. Most of that $3B is cash out of the state coffers that is paid to Foxconn.

          • Foxconn is NOT just getting a tax cut. The state is paying cash to Foxconn. Most of that $3B is cash out of the state coffers that is paid to Foxconn.

            You really need to stop just blindly replaying sensationalist news articles as factual. The actual bill [wisconsin.gov] provides refundable tax credits, primarily as follows: (1) 17% of the first $100k of each full-time employee's wages, up to an aggregate total of $1.5 billion; and (2) 15% of the company's capital expenditures, up to an aggregate total of $1.35 billion.

            So any money from Wisconsin is (a) only offsetting a small percentage of Foxconn's expenditures in the state; and (b) only a cash payment to Foxconn to t

          • From TFA:

            if Foxconn does bring all 13,000 jobs for which the company would receive $2.85 billion in tax credits over 15 years

            Tax Credits NOT Cash.

            • Refundable tax credits are not quite the same as just cutting a check outright, but they're pretty close to that.

              The difference is that the check that gets cut has tax deducted from it first. But it's still a cash payment.

        • by Anonymous Coward

          How about 0 Foxcon, and invest in education and infrastructure to attract and grow business? And if you must give away money to businesses, grants for local firms, or in some other way not putting all your eggs in one basket?

        • by Anonymous Coward

          Ha ha ha. Rick Perry posting as AC says I don't understand the math.

          A $3B tax credit (over 15 years) is exactly the same as giving Foxconn $3B. The accounting is different, but the effect is exactly the same. The state foregoes $3B. Of course this assumes that Foxconn builds its factory there.

          And if they do build there, this is offset by $10B in wages over 15 years (assuming all 13K are hired soon. If Foxconn waits until 2030 to hire 12K of them then Wisconsin isn't going to see $10B in wages and the associ

    • The Milwaukee suburbs did.
    • Which Scott Walker are you talking about?

      The only governor in US history to win a recall election?

      Who's going to pay for those teacher jobs? More teachers? More government workers?

      Please don't tell me you think that when the government allows you to keep more of the money you earned you are costing the government money in the same way hiring teachers costs money.
  • I get the Walker Trump non-union nature of the deal means we have to discuss politics... but is this a trend or will it become a trend? If all the major suppliers of electrical components and manufacturing equipment/maintenance of that equipment have a "working" location in the central US does that mean that a lot of other factories like this become viable in the US? I wonder about how this is related to robotics and advanced manufacturing and if the third world cheap labor advantage is rapidly being plo
  • Temporary jobs (Score:5, Interesting)

    by burtosis ( 1124179 ) on Thursday September 14, 2017 @09:08PM (#55200153)
    This is for building a factory, and much like pipeline deals, after it's built the number of jobs will be much less. You can't manufacture and assemble in the USA without it being automated, these are mostly robot jobs. I doubt they will reach thier full subsidy long term, it's more likely they will employ management, a handful of engineers and some machine/assembly robot techs and that's it. The manufacturing jobs aren't coming back.
    • "You can't manufacture and assemble in the USA without it being automated"

      There HAS to be some automation in manfacturing. I don't want to buy purely hand made goods! Do you?

      Someone is paying incoming tax on that effort. Your assessment of how automated it is is from silence.

      "The manufacturing jobs aren't coming back."

      Although you appeal to raw cynicism the jobs have been coming back since Jan 17'. Your attempt to re-write the news here will fail.
      • "You can't manufacture and assemble in the USA without it being automated" There HAS to be some automation in manfacturing. I don't want to buy purely hand made goods! Do you?

        Its nearly 100% automated, you can't feed an American family on the wage that barely feeds a 7 year old chienese girl. The minimum wage in the USA is an order of magnitude more than what you can do overseas.

        Someone is paying incoming tax on that effort. Your assessment of how automated it is is from silence.

        no one pays tax on robotic assembly that displaces workers. The company actually pays the government less when it has fewer workers. Further, large companies pay virtually no tax like Apple and google. Have no idea what you even mean.

        "The manufacturing jobs aren't coming back." Although you appeal to raw cynicism the jobs have been coming back since Jan 17'. Your attempt to re-write the news here will fail.

        We are down 7 MILLION manufacturing jobs [creditwritedowns.com]since the 70s and 6

  • many of the companies he met with on the trip were already "every interested in how they could come to Wisconsin and partner for that new ecosystem."

    many of the companies he met with on the trip were already "very interested in how they could come to Wisconsin and be given free money."

    FTFHim

    • many of the companies he met with on the trip were already "every interested in how they could come to Wisconsin and partner for that new ecosystem."

      many of the companies he met with on the trip were already "very interested in how they could come to Wisconsin and be given so much free money that it broke previous handout records."

      FTFHim

      FTFY

  • How would a single factory would "transform Wisconsin into "Wisconn Valley.""?

    I dunno if Walker understands this, but Foxconn is not moving it's entire operation there. This is basically taxpayer money wasted on a huge incentive package to end up with a factory that, sure, will give some people jobs, but that is not in any way dissimilar to factories in countries like Brazil, Hungary, Slovakia, Turkey, Czech Republic, India, Malaysia or Mexico.
    All of those having currency exchange and cheaper labor advantag

  • by locater16 ( 2326718 ) on Thursday September 14, 2017 @09:37PM (#55200253)
    3 years from now

    Wisconsin lawmakers sue, claiming Foxconn did not hold up incentive package deal from 3 yeas ago...

    • by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 14, 2017 @10:09PM (#55200349)

      No, they know how to play the Game now. As in how Nixoncare became Romneycare became Obamacare.
      Everything that goes wrong with this preposterous project will be the Democrat's Fault. It was Them, and their Corporate Overlords, and their corrupt dealings with the Chinese that caused the Foxconn mess, and if only people had listened to Walker and the other brave Patriotic Republicans who were opposed to this from the very beginning...

      And fucking ignorant self-obsessed Republicans will lap it right up.
      They always do.

      • Well, then. For the record, your Nixoncare/Romneycare deal passed congress solely on the Democratic vote. Zero Republicans voted in favor.

        In a way it's a shame Hillary didn't win because Bommacare IS going to very soon slide down the shitter and the party left holding the bag are 0% responsible for it being enacted.

        • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

          by Anonymous Coward

          Romneycare deal passed congress solely on the Democratic vote. Zero Republicans voted in favor.

          The party of obstructionism under Obama has become the party of incompetence under Trump. You guys are a dumpster fire, and wholly committed to dishonesty

  • by QuietLagoon ( 813062 ) on Thursday September 14, 2017 @10:00PM (#55200317)

    ...investing approximately $10 billion in the state and building a factory that could employ up to 13,000 workers. ...

    What is the timeline for the $10 billion to be invested? Surely, a sum that large has some planning behind it. How soon will it be before the entire $10 billion is invested? Also, what is the timeline for the ramp-up to 13,000 new employees?

    .
    https://www.bloomberg.com/view... [bloomberg.com]

    ...Let's clarify this: Foxconn promised to invest $10 billion and create 3,000 jobs initially, but those numbers are squishy. As Bloomberg Businessweek observed:

    Just this past year, Foxconn is reported to have pledged investments of $5 billion in India; $3.65 billion in Kunshan, China; and $8.8 billion in Guangzhou. It's too early to know if those sums will ever be spent, but including Wisconsin, the tally now stands at $27.5 billion of commitments. That's more than Hon Hai (the company's publicly traded flagship) has spent in the last 23 years.

    Those promises are mostly that and little more. At best, this is a wildly optimistic hope for new jobs in an era when U.S. manufacturing employment been in long-term decline. At worse, it is a giant grift, a taxpayer-funded photo op that will yield little in terms of job gains, other than a few hundred heavily subsidized positions....

  • by supernova87a ( 532540 ) <kepler1.hotmail@com> on Thursday September 14, 2017 @10:12PM (#55200357)
    Let's assume, for the moment, that the politicians' estimators are correct, and that:

    - 13,000 workers employed for 1 year to build the factory
    - 3,000 workers employed for 15 years working at the factory
    - 22,000 additional workers spawned by the need for suppliers etc, over those 15 years

    That gives 388,000 worker-years supported by doing this deal, for which was paid $2.85 billion in tax credits over the 15 years.

    Doing the math, that is $7,345 in subsidies paid by the government, per job per year.

    If these figures are believable, then it possibly is not a horrible deal. *But* as with everything, the biggest pitfall is not in the decimal place of how many workers exactly, but in the assumptions about whether those additional workers materialize, whether Foxconn sources its stuff from local / surrounding vendors vs. Mexico, and most of all, whether in 8-10 years the market for LCD screens changes and Foxconn picks up and leaves.

    Does the LCD screen market now look like it did 8-10 years ago? Should we expect that it will 8-10 years from *now* and that the deal will still be something Foxconn wants to stick to?

    I have a feeling that Republican lawmakers are not quite as sharp as the economists that Foxconn, a $135B company, has on its staff to figure out whether they're getting the better end of the deal...
    • by eskayp ( 597995 )

      Republican lawmakers may not be quite as sharp as Foxconn's economists but they are sharp enough to find a way to take Foxconn's kickbacks (aka bribes) under the table.
      And Foxconn's economists know exactly how much it's worth to pay them.
      Whether or not Wisconsin benefits is just a side issue: part of the smokescreen.

      • by Anonymous Coward

        Foxconn has no reason to pay a cent in kickbacks, the jobs are the carrot they are holding out and the politicians need that win, not more money. In deals like this, the flow of money is ALWAYS gov't -> company and not the other way around. If anyone is handing over suitcases of cash at their meetings, it's the WI gov't, not Foxconn.

        • by eskayp ( 597995 )

          "Foxconn has no reason to pay a cent in kickbacks..."
          They do if Wisconsin politicians make that gift wrapped $3 billion contingent on certain palms being greased off camera.
          Keep your eye on the carrot, er, jobs.
          Pay no attention to what's going on behind the curtain.

    • Think on this, it just may be companies executives looking to for kudos. They have no intention of completing the deal, more of a show of "hey look what I did, give me a promotion!". After that it will become a problem for someone else and no one will following through on it.

    • by Solandri ( 704621 ) on Friday September 15, 2017 @12:59AM (#55200781)
      Fiscal conservative here. Personally I think these tax break deals for anyone (companies, sports teams, individuals) should be illegal. IMHO they violate the equal protection clause - if I have to pay taxes, other people (and their companies) damn well should have to pay as well.

      I am all for competition and market forces in private enterprise. But pitting state or city governments against each other to see who will give you the biggest tax break is just wrong IMHO. The entire reason people create a government is because they want to be treated fairly. Giving tax breaks only to specific individuals or companies defeats government's reason for existing

      If you want to create new economic activity by instituting a tax break, give it to all companies, not just one specific company. Government should be in the business of improving society overall. Not in the business of favoring companies and individuals who can leverage what they can offer society into tax breaks. Cities and states should compete with each other to attract business on the basis of offering the lowest overall tax rate, not compete by giving tax breaks to only a select few.

      I have a feeling that Republican lawmakers are not quite as sharp as the economists that Foxconn, a $135B company, has on its staff to figure out whether they're getting the better end of the deal...

      You're assuming that the economics of this type of deal is zero sum. It's not. It's positive sum. When a new factory is built (and there is market demand for what the factory is producing), everyone wins - the factory, its employees, the surrounding community and government, and the customers of the products the factory produces. Yes someone is probably getting the better end of the deal, but it's not as important if everyone comes out a winner. You are still better off for doing it, than not doing it. (The sports stadium deals where the local government pays to build the stadium are an exception, since it involves actual cash expenditures, not giving up increases in future tax proceeds. The expenditures means the accounting balance for the deal can shift into the red.)

      My gripe is with how this type of deal destroys a level playing field between Foxconn and its competitors who don't get the same tax break. You're preemptively shutting out a potential future factory which could have generated even greater benefits than the Foxconn factory. The government shouldn't be placing bets on horses - that's the role of private enterprise (where someone who picks a loser bears the cost of a bad choice themselves, not forces all of society to pay for it).

    • It's an LCD plant.
      The new iPhone uses oled.
      The credits can be turned in to cash with need for profit.

      Oops.
      Sucks to be a local taxpayer I guess. Nice for the Chinese though.

  • This is what we're going to get instead of UBI: govt. handouts to corporations that trickle down to makework jobs. It'll be even more expensive than an actual UBI, too. Thanks, plutocrats!

  • by pr0nbot ( 313417 ) on Friday September 15, 2017 @06:27AM (#55201559)

    Assuming the $3bn is a one-off incentive (i.e. not spread out over multiple years)
    Population of Wisconsin: 5,778,708 (2016 est.) - Wikipedia
    Cost per resident: $519
    Median household income: $42,041 (2009-2013) - Wikipedia

    So it's roughly a 1.2% one-off tax on the median earner.

    I don't know how this offsets against the projected benefits.

  • by Anonymous Coward

    This is so full of weasel words I don't know where to begin. Wisconsin residents are being completely fleeced. They're going to pony up 3 billion dollars for what will probably amount to a couple thousand low-wage robot babysitting jobs that never ever repay that "investment."

  • While sweetener deals with states not new, The WI / FoxConn deal one of the largest and since recent will serve as a comparable much like the NFL & NBA stadium subsidies. Amazon now shopping for a new location. Will be interesting to see who else follows. The bankers and consultants will likely be sharpening their presentations to try and drum up some new business.
  • by zantafio ( 5009115 ) on Friday September 15, 2017 @07:36AM (#55201837)
    Can we have universal healthcare in this country? Nope, because the Repug scream "SOCIALISM!!!!".... But $3 billions to court a company, and a foreign one on top of that, somehow that's not socialism and that's okay....
  • Or I'll be very mad!

  • Wait a second... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Gravis Zero ( 934156 ) on Friday September 15, 2017 @08:32AM (#55202127)

    What happened to "Government Shouldn't Pick Winners and Losers"? Worse yet, it's not even an American company!

    There seems to be serious hypocrisy going on within the Republican party.

    • Keeping your own money is not the government picking winners and losers.

      Studies have shown voters know the difference.

      Aren't the libs supposed to rotate their accusations when people start catching on? I think this one is overdue.
  • Ultimately I predict this will be a loser of a deal. They'll build this plant, it'll be massively automated and employ few people and be massively productive.

    Let's be frank here... 3 Billion dollars is A LOT of money in Wisconsin terms. This will be a major hit to the states tax revenues.
  • Governor Walker told reporters that many of the companies he met with on the trip were already "every interested in how they could come to Wisconsin and partner for that new ecosystem."

    Well, duh! What company wouldn't be interested in seeing if they can get their hands on large amounts of free money?

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