Meet Foxconn’s cash cow.
Three billion dollars is a lot of money, but there may be another reason Terry Gou likes Wisconsin for Foxconn’s American mega-factory: It’s a oneparty state. After years of doing business in China, that probably suits the Foxconn chairman just fine.
Wisconsin Republicans control all three branches of government and seem certain to push a $3 billion incentives package for the Taiwanese industrial giant through the Legislature.
What Terry Gou wants, Terry Gou gets.
Big checks to subsidize the cost of the factory: Done!
Big checks to subsidize the jobs: OK!
Unlimited Lake Michigan water: Check!
Suspension of some inconvenient state environmental rules: You bet!
Go straight to the state Supreme Court if sued and automatically stay lower court orders: Why not?
On that last one, the answer may be: the Constitution, that’s why not.
Rick Esenberg, founder of the conservative Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty, told the Journal Sentinel’s Jason Stein: “It might be a separation of powers problem. I think that’s a close question.”
The Legislature’s Joint Finance Committee approved the provision on a party-line vote Tuesday. It would allow the state Supreme Court to jump ahead of appellate courts and hear potential legal appeals related to the Foxconn plant. Lower court orders would be suspended until the Supreme Court ruled.
Given the 5-2 conservative majority on the state’s highest court, this amounts to a kind of court shopping that begs the question: Can I get a golden ticket to my own favorite judge, too?
The Joint Finance Committee also required a review of Foxconn’s job numbers before the state cuts checks for plant and equipment subsidies that could total $1.35 billion. And that sounds prudent until you realize the requirement is as toothless as a day-old baby. It doesn’t actually
require Foxconn to create a minimum number of jobs. A major risk is that Foxconn claims every penny of the plant and equipment subsidies then automates its way to well short of the promised 13,000 jobs, which for Wisconsin taxpayers could significantly raise the cost per job of these giveaways.
Again, in this one-party state, what Terry Gou wants, Terry Gou gets.
Rep. John Nygren (RMarinette), co-chairman of the Legislature’s budget committee, tried to justify the special treatment, saying Republicans just want to ensure that 13,000 jobs land in Wisconsin.
“This is the most exciting thing to happen to Wisconsin since the cow,” he said.
Even, I guess, if taxpayers are the ones being milked.