Groups working to slow politically-driven Foxconn bulldozing
When he was Milwaukee Mayor, John Norquist used to wryly observe that there were only two stages to WisDOT's highway planning before the orange barrels went up. "It's too soon to know," followed by "It's too late to do anything about it."
When it comes to Foxconn, Walker and his allies, with their 2018 campaign schedules driving the process, just skipped to the last step and sent in the bulldozers, the route paved politically by over-promising, fast-tracked subsidies, gaudy propagandizing photo-ops, environmental exemptions and, if they were to need it, seizures or productive land and finely-maintained homes under a twisted definition of blight removal. (see photo of what can be called blighted, and seized).
Cabbage fields on the 'blighted' Foxconn site, 2017
Enter a court filing and related actions aimed at putting the cart behind the horse where it belongs.
As I've said on this blog many times, it's wrong that so much private money has to be spent Wisconsin these days to battle with taxpayer-funded agencies and officials to get public policies serving the public interest, but until there are ballot-box wins, this will remain the case.
So props to the activists trying to restore sanity, fairness and fiscal health into a corrupted and polluted political environment.
When it comes to Foxconn, Walker and his allies, with their 2018 campaign schedules driving the process, just skipped to the last step and sent in the bulldozers, the route paved politically by over-promising, fast-tracked subsidies, gaudy propagandizing photo-ops, environmental exemptions and, if they were to need it, seizures or productive land and finely-maintained homes under a twisted definition of blight removal. (see photo of what can be called blighted, and seized).
Cabbage fields on the 'blighted' Foxconn site, 2017Enter a court filing and related actions aimed at putting the cart behind the horse where it belongs.
The filings ask a court to put a hold on the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources’ diversion approval during the ongoing legal challenge.
Additionally, the groups requested that the city of Racine hold off on beginning any construction work on new water infrastructure related to the proposed diversion of water from Lake Michigan.You can access a full year's postings about Foxconn, here.
As I've said on this blog many times, it's wrong that so much private money has to be spent Wisconsin these days to battle with taxpayer-funded agencies and officials to get public policies serving the public interest, but until there are ballot-box wins, this will remain the case.
So props to the activists trying to restore sanity, fairness and fiscal health into a corrupted and polluted political environment.
1 comment:
Amazing that the self-proclaimed "fiscal conservatives" want to use essentially unlimited public funds for Scott Walker's sham politically-driven job stunt. It would help if Wisconsin's largest media outlets would consistently tell the truth: Foxconn is a boondoggle that is intended to prop-up Scott Walker's 2018 campaign and insure he never has to answer for his failed 250,000 job promise.
No one should be surprised that his media minions are helping, as they catapulted the propaganda in 2014 that Walker's clear and explicit 250,000 job promise was merely a "big idea" (tm). The content and exact phrasing Walker used makes it clear that this was how he expected to be judged after his FIRST term.
Even with the fairy tale 13,000 jobs that increasingly appear to be just another lie, Walker would not hit 250,000 jobs into his third term. The media coverage across Wisconsin on Foxconn is, overwhelmingly inaccurate cheerleading and dismal. Walker's initial job promise has been flushed down the memory hole.
Only Matt Flynn specifically states he will fight Foxconn and offers an articulate path to stop it. I can only hope that your readers understand that slowing Foxconn development does not matter at all if, in the end, we elect any other candidate than Matt Flynn.
Everyone else -- and I mean EVERYONE -- will continue the biggest scam in Wisconsin's history. If you know anything about railroad history in the mid-to-latter 19th century, you Wisconsin was a corrupt cesspool.
That's were we are headed. No one running for governor can clean up this mess if they passively accept Scott Walker's Foxconn stunt.
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