Thursday, January 31, 2019

Here's a new way to assess Scott Walker's Foxconn boondoggle

A major bond-rating agency warns investors that Racine County and the Village of Mount Pleasant are spending heavily on the project and are on the hook for a boatload of borrowing. 
Credit rating agency Moody's issues cautionary note on local Foxconn debt
The "negative" description indicates the presence of downward pressure that places the ratings at higher risk of being downgraded over the next 12 to 24 months...The village and county have borrowed $355 million so far in support of Foxconn. They have spent about $190 million of that, with most of the money going for land acquisition.
Don't bother asking if ex-Governor Cheese Sandwich


is concerned. He's too busy Tweet-auditioning for Trump:

Elizabeth Warren’s Wealth Tax is like telling a straight A student in high school that she has to give up some of her grades to the other students. Instead of stealing from her, why don’t we just help everyone else do better!

4 comments:

  1. With a lame analogy like that it's clear that Scott Walker will never have high enough grades to ever have to worry about anyone "stealing" them from him.

    Maybe someone needs to explain this in terms he can understand: food, for example. "Suppose that, through your own efforts or good fortune, your political donors gave you a million ham sandwiches a year. You only eat 365 ham sandwiches a year, usually, but suppose you went to ham sandwiches for every meal, and your family did the same, and you lavished ham sandwiches on all your friends but, really, you still have 900,000 ham sandwiches leftover every single year. Maybe you could trade a few for beer or ice cream or fried cheese curds, but doesn't it make sense that some portion of those ham sandwiches over and above your need or ability to distribute should go to people who are not so fortunate or do not have such generous donors? And remember: some of those excess (to you) sandwiches will help feed people who do things that you need to have done to enjoy the sandwiches you keep, like plowing the roads and taking away the garbage and making sure the beer you trade for isn't adulterated and the ham in the sandwiches that you eat is safe. Or making sure that the airplanes you fly on to go beg for more sandwiches from your donors crisscross the country without crashing into each other. So by giving up some of your sandwiches you're really helping yourself in the long run."

    Just a thought.

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  2. Worth keeping in the back of your mind - if those communities can't pay their debts, state taxpayers are on the hook for up to 40% of costs. That would be around $360 mil today.

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  3. "Look at me! I can order food! And take crappy pictures of it!"

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  4. I feel sorry for the people whose lives were uprooted by this scam. Mainly I am referring to the renters who were thrown out without much notice and no help to pay for moving. It's really a terrible thing for a community to do to a person.

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