Remembering when Kenosha Co. passed on 'winning' Foxconn

With anxiety replacing manufacturing in Racine County where Foxconn has bulldozed land, homes and maybe local budgets, too, it's worth remembering that Kenosha officials chose not to bite on the Foxconn lure when it was dangled in 2017:

Kenosha happy with no-risk proximity to Foxconn, Racine

For some time I've been thinking that Kenosha authorities made the right move in September by balking at the local costs and impacts which came with inviting and siting Foxconn and letting Racine jurisdictions the the plunge: 

Kenosha Mayor John Antaramian wrote Gov. Scott Walker a letter dated Monday that pulled the city out of the running for a Foxconn manufacturing plant that is expected to employ as many as 13,000 people.

“Throughout this planning process, we have been consistent in our belief that without significant adjustments to specific current state laws impacting local municipalities, we would be unable to support and/or absorb the development of the project,” Antaramian wrote.

Kenosha jurisdictions won't lose control of so much land and water and landscape as will Racine County just next door
but, like Milwaukee and Northern Illinois, could reap plenty of location-location-location benefits without catching Walker's Foxconn Fever

Today I saw this story, and an observation to a recent meeting about Foxconn by Mayor Antaramian that hot the nail on the head:

Kenosha Mayor John Antaramian told the group of about 150 people he is “thrilled to have Foxconn in Racine.” 

“I think it works very well for us,” Antaramian said. “It’s 11 miles to the north, and I don’t have the risk that everyone else has to take.”

Time will tell, but I can see Kenosha gaining without having to give up anything.

Like the Village of Mount Pleasant, population 26,000, on the hook for $764 million.