Doyle, Others Share Credit For Fond du Lac Jobs

This business success story about the recovery of the US recreational boating industry focuses on long-time Fond du Lac manufacturer Mercury Marine - - but regrettably omits the union and leadership role played by then-Governor Jim Doyle, a Democrat, to prevent Mercury Marine from moving Fond du Lac jobs to its Oklahoma plant.

...Doyle said taxpayers throughout Wisconsin will give up to $70 million in state assistance, most of it in refundable tax credits.

There was a second, subsequent intervention in 2010 by Doyle, a Democrat, that guaranteed Mercury Marine would add jobs in Wisconsin, not Mexico:

Governor Jim Doyle today announced $5 million in performance-based incentives for Mercury Marine to bring 200 new jobs to Fond du Lac. 

Mercury Marine originally planned to locate the 200 assembly jobs in Mexico, but Governor Doyle worked closely with the company to ensure those jobs came to Wisconsin instead. 

Current GOP Gov. Scott Walker and the right-wing propaganda machine working overtime to paper over his failure to create the Walker-promised 250,0000 new private-sector jobs never miss a chance to demonize the positive roles that unions and the public sector play in the economy.

And they continue the misdirection by attacking Doyle - - though he has not been governor for three-and-a-half years - -  but Mercury Marine might have closed up in Fond du Lac had Doyle not used state financing and helped coordinate a broader deal to keep the firm's work and payroll in Wisconsin.

A package that included assistance from local governments, taxpayers, and union members, through contract concessions.

Democrats have allowed Walker and his allies to use Doyle as an on-going foil while distorting his record, and it's part of a political capitulation that buries the good things that Doyle did - - pushing Amtrak service, establishing the Great Lakes Compact - - and lets the right-wing set the parameters of the larger debate.

That needs to stop.