Monday, February 5, 2018

Spotlighting 5 worst aspects of Walker's Foxconn con

The Foxconn story is into its eighth month and is difficult to track. Even my archival post about Foxconn exceeds 130 items, so here's a sifting and winnowing suggestion:

Use these five items as source material because they highlight the worst aspects of the deal to which Walker and his legislative lackeys have committed Wisconsin for decades.


About the environment:


1 * Foxconn's Lake Michigan water diversion will exceed Waukesha's
A large portion of the company's whopping demand for seven million gallons of Great Lakes water every day will be used in manufacturing processes which involve toxic metals and other contaminants, so any slip-up in waste water treatment could imperil the surrounding watershed, Lake Michigan and nearby drinking water supplies.
2 * Foxconn will be a major air pollution emitter
The question isn't whether Foxconn will be an air polluter. The question is whether technology can capture enough of it. 
3 * Foxconn's first wetlands fill is big; more to come
In a flood-prone county, Walker and his legislative bellhops s gave Foxconn unique permissions to build on lake beds, change stream flows and fill wetlands without permits. Of course, more legislation is advancing to give other developers similar exemptions from state law, legacy and the State Constitution. 
About the public subsidies:  

4 * Wisconsin Budget Project's invaluable Foxconn report

From the original report
Proponents of the Foxconn deal have justified the large cost of the assistance package by pointing to the number of jobs the company could bring—but more than a third of the public assistance to Foxconn (36%) has no direct connection to job creation.
5 * Walker's lavish spending on Foxconn explained
The Journal Sentinel discloses that the $200,000 public dollar cost of each potential job at Foxconn vastly exceeds the per-job subsidies in previous Wisconsin deals, and others nationally: 
To land the massive Foxconn factory, Gov. Scott Walker has committed the state to paying more than eight times as much per job as Wisconsin will provide under similar job creation deals struck last year, a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel analysis has found.
 

2 comments:

Unknown said...

If I don't say it enough James, thank you for keeping on top of this, and him......

James Rowen said...

You are welcome. It’s a team effort.