Scott Walker’s Big Con Job: Foxconn Reconsidering Plans To Build LCD Production At Huge Racine County Facility

By James B. Nelson & Rick Romell
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (1/30/19)

Foxconn Technology Group is reconsidering plans to make advanced liquid crystal display panels at its Racine County campus, Reuters reported on Wednesday.

Foxconn “said it intends to hire mostly engineers and researchers rather than the manufacturing workforce the project originally promised,” the report says.

The report is based on an interview with Louis Woo, special assistant to Foxconn Chief Executive Terry Gou.

Woo’s remarks to Reuters marked the latest in a string of modifications by Foxconn – and for Wisconsin the most ominous – to its originally announced plans for a massive electronics factory in Racine County. Over the last 10 months, the company has radically altered its planned employment mix and the nature of the manufacturing operation, and failed to create enough jobs in 2018 to qualify for state tax credits.

In the wake of the Reuters report, though, Foxconn on Wednesday pledged again – as it has repeatedly amid earlier developments – to creating 13,000 jobs in Wisconsin. The latest statement did not say anything about investing up to $10 billion in the Racine County manufacturing and research complex, another element in the state’s contract with the company.

In return for Foxconn’s promises in 2017 to spend up to $10 billion on the facility in Mount Pleasant and hire 13,000 workers in Wisconsin, state and local governments promised public subsidies totaling $4 billion. Former Gov. Scott Walker and President Donald Trump heralded the development at the groundbreaking for the facility last year. …

Read the Rest

  • Foxconn Shifts Focus From Wisconsin Manufacturing Plan — (Reuters) – Foxconn Technology Group is reconsidering plans to make advanced liquid crystal display panels at a $10 billion Wisconsin campus, and said it intends to hire mostly engineers and researchers rather than the manufacturing workforce the project originally promised. … Read the Rest and 1+-Minute Video
  • Wisconsin Taxpayers Could Be On The Hook For Foxconn Work Done Outside The State — Taxpayers could pay Taiwanese tech giant Foxconn for work done outside of Wisconsin unless changes are made to how the state’s jobs agency issues tax credits, a state audit shows. The Legislature’s Audit Bureau is recommending the Wisconsin Economic Development Corp. make changes to its procedures to avoid awarding tax credits to Foxconn Technology Group for work that isn’t being done in the state. … Read the Rest

(Commoner Call cartoon by Mark L. Taylor, 2019. Open source and free for non-derivative use with link to www.thecommonercall.org )