Tuesday, November 28, 2017

A campaigning Walker assigns small village sprawl, debt

The purported opponents of big government in Wisconsin just assigned a hefty new debt to everyone in the semi-rural Village of Mount Pleasant that the perpetually-campaigning Scott Walker will use to distract from his failed job growth promises.

Here's the core of Mount Pleasant's unprecedented roll of its collective Foxconn and future financial dice:

The village of about 26,000 residents is pledging $764 million in local borrowing and amenities to Taiwan-based Foxconn.

In return, Foxconn is promising to build at least $1.4 billion in taxable property by January 1, 2023 that is projected to create revenues to more than cover Village and Racine County taxpayer contributions.

For its part, Foxconn will front the Village $60 million for project land acquisition, and a Foxconn-related firm will guarantee about 16% of the locals' $764 million pledge.

Then everyone prays for a strong flat-panel market.

As Donald Trump might say, 'we'll see what happens.'

Set aside the significant environmental and socio-economic issues raised by an unprecedented binge of sprawl development on rural land filled with wetlands near Lake Michigan; the loan payback schedule is pretty ambitious for a project described as three times the footprint of the Pentagon.

A deal that is sure to attract litigation over probable private property condemnation, unique environmental permit exemptions and special judicial favors awarded to Foxconn by the deal.

And everyone seems to think that  disputes will be handled by friendly Wisconsin and US courts, but who's to stop Foxconn from litigating in Taiwanese courts?

How big is Mount Pleasant's legal staff, and what kind of travel or outside attorneys' budgets does it have?

Here is a complete archive of the Foxconn deal.
Image result for scott Walker fishing photo

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