Coalition lobbies for Foxconn deal

100 organizations push for passage of incentives bill

MADISON - More than 100 businesses, trade associations and local chambers of commerce launched a group Thursday to lobby for a multibilliondollar deal to bring a flat screen plant to southeastern Wisconsin.

Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce — the state’s largest business lobby — is leading the Wisconn Valley Jobs Coalition.

Under a bill before the Legislature’s budget committee, Foxconn Technology Group of Taiwan could receive up to $2.85 billion in cash payments from the state in exchange for building the up-to-$10 billion LCD display plant and hiring up to 13,000 workers.

“We want to demonstrate that there is broad statewide support for the legislation,” said Scott Manley, the top lobbyist for WMC. “We also anticipate the group will be active after (the bill’s passage.)”

Supporters say the Foxconn deal represents a once-in-ageneration opportunity to bring a new industry to the United States and site it here in Wisconsin, along with a large number of suppliers and ripple-effect jobs.

Pointing to risks of the deal, critics say state taxpayers will have to make an unprecedented series of cash payments to a company in the highly competitive consumer electronics market, where innovations from upstarts and setbacks to established companies are commonplace.

The bill is before the Legislature’s budget committee, and co-chairwoman Sen. Alberta Darling (R-River Hills) said Thursday that lawmakers were reviewing possible undisclosed changes to the Foxconn package to address some of the concerns of local officials.

She told reporters she expected the budget committee to act on the package soon and for the Senate to take it up the week of Sept. 11.

The Assembly approved the incentive package last week. If the Senate makes changes to it, the Assembly will need to revisit the bill.

Milwaukee businessman Andy Gronik, a Democratic candidate for governor, said at a Madison luncheon Thursday that he’s uncertain of whether he’d be able to reopen the Foxconn contract if he wins his party’s primary and then beats GOP Gov. Scott Walker next year in the general election. Gronik initially praised the Foxconn deal but has grown critical of it as more details have become public.

Gronik said if the state were a company and he were on the corporate board, he would turn down the Foxconn agreement in its present form and seek a

better package.

“I’d deny the deal and then I’d fire Scott Walker (as the company CEO),” Gronik said.

Walker, in turn, has said Democrats are playing politics with the deal.

Polling released this week by the River Alliance

of Wisconsin showed that voters in four state Senate districts in western and northern Wisconsin opposed the Foxconn deal. But the survey told respondents only about the potential costs of the deal and didn’t include figures on the potential number of jobs that would be created.

For its part, Foxconn released a statement Thursday welcoming the

formation of the business group.

“We value strong partnerships and look forward to joining with these hard-working businesses and entrepreneurs as we lay the groundwork for economic success together,” the statement reads.