Monday, August 14, 2017

GOP Foxconn votes proceed robotically as jobs, revenue estimates fall

WI GOP Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, satisfied that $252 million in highway pork for his district is safely tucked into his chamber's version of the Foxconn subsidy bill, is pushing the fast-tracked package to a floor vote Thursday.

Picture of Representative Robin Vos
The GOP-controlled Wisconsin State Assembly is also eager to pass Scott Walker's must-have pre-election $3 billion Foxconn tax-breaks and environmental rollback package - - even before they've approved the state budget now six weeks late or tackled paying to repair the state's crumbling road system - - so they gave the Foxconn package its first party-line approval Monday, despite:

*  New, more independent estimates that show thousands fewer spin-off jobs being created than company PR had suggested;


*  Updated numbers released last week that found the Foxconn payroll was overstated by $100 million.


*  The package would cost the state and localities $150 million in sales tax collections.


*  Many jobs which will produce state subsidy awards to the company will not pay family-supporting wages - - just one of many indications that as the euphoria wears off, reality is setting in - - though Vos & Co. are ignoring it.

*  Earlier actions by Vos eliminated transit connections and coordination in the same region to which Foxconn would draw employees.


Though Waukesha County Assemblyman Joel Kleefisch, (R-Oconomowoc) - - husband of GOP Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch, co-beneficiary of a six-figure, taxpayer-paid household income and apparent car-pooling champion - - said the lack of transit service to or near the Foxconn site was nothing to worry about, explaining:
...workers would “find ways to get there,” pointing to Madison’s ride share program.

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