Reuters reports that a “bipartisan” legislative report says that Wisconsin’s pending deal with Foxconn to set up shop and build LCD screens for all manner of electronics—potentially providing up to 13,000 people by 2021—is maybe a little crazy expensive.
Based on estimates from the non-partisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau, Wisconsin will not receive a return on its investment in the project until about 2042. The bureau provides fiscal analysis for the state legislature.
There are other issues with the deal, including waivers on environmental regulations that have yet to be fully addressed by proponents of the investment. The report is speculative because it is dependent on all of the commitments in the deal being met. This includes an average salary of $54,000 and scaling the workforce from 1,000 to 13,000 in the next four years.
The report said if 10 percent of projected new jobs from the project were filled by Illinois residents, a concern of several lawmakers, the state would not break even until about 2044.
The state would see a positive cash flow in the first three years of the project because of an initial delay in state payments as well as tax revenue from construction workers, Reinhardt said.
That last part is important to note as it gives people like Governor Walker and President Trump (and the GOP platform for that matter) a chance to tout the great “successes” in their moves for a couple of years, before the state’s budget is strangled.