Voters skeptical of Foxconn plan, MU poll finds
Respondents think local businesses won’t benefit
Voters think the State of Wisconsin overpaid on the massive Foxconn deal in spite of it bringing benefits to the Milwaukee area, a new poll has found.
In the most extensive polling to date on the multibillion dollar deal, the Marquette University Law School poll found that 49% of voters think the Foxconn Technology Group factory won’t be worth its cost to taxpayers and 38% think it will.
State and local taxpayers have committed billions of dollars in incentives to the Taiwanese company to lure a flatscreen plant and up to 13,000 jobs to Racine County.
Most people in the state think that as a region southeastern Wisconsin will get an economic boost from the project. But a majority of voters — including Republicans — don’t see benefits for their local businesses.
“The idea that this is going to benefit regions outside of our local one (in greater Milwaukee) is greeted with a lot of skepticism,” pollster Charles Franklin said of his results.
The findings sounded a cautionary note for GOP Gov. Scott Walker, for whom the Foxconn deal represents one of his most noteworthy policies outside of his 2011 repeal of most collective bargaining for public employees.
For his part, Walker on Monday seemed to acknowledge the political challenges around Foxconn even as he argued that it made sense economically.
“Bringing 13,000 good-paying, family-supported jobs to Wisconsin is the right thing to do — regardless of politics,” the governor tweeted.
The polling released Monday by Marquette wasn’t all negative on Foxconn.
For instance, 57% of the registered voters surveyed said the project would boost greater Milwaukee’s economy compared with 35% who said it won’t. The only dissenters, paradoxically, were residents within the city of Milwaukee, who felt 52% to 42% that Foxconn would not benefit greater Milwaukee.
A strong majority of suburban Milwaukee voters and GOP-leaning voters statewide also think the Foxconn deal will pay for itself.
But majorities of city of Milwaukee
residents as well as Democrats and independents across Wisconsin think the state won’t recoup its $3 billion in cash payments and forgone taxes. Marquette didn’t ask about the additional $1 billion in local subsidies and other costs of the project.
Where voters of all stripes agree is on whether Foxconn will benefit local businesses in their area. A majority of voters across political parties and regions of the state — 66% to 25% — don’t think the deal will help their local employers.
Even suburban Milwaukee voters — who generally liked the Foxconn deal and thought it would help their region — didn’t think it would benefit their local businesses.
Those findings come in spite of the fact that Walker has aggressively toured Wisconsin in recent months to tout the “transformational” opportunities that Foxconn could open up for suppliers around the state to do business with the electronics giant.
The findings helped explain why Democratic challengers to Walker such as Rep. Dana Wachs (D-Eau Claire) have made the Foxconn deal one of their top criticisms of the governor.
“In Walker’s Wisconsin, a foreign billionaire gets the most expensive deal in our state’s history and has to do very little in return,” Wachs campaign manager Brita Olsen said in a statement Monday.
Voters also have questions about
“Bringing 13,000 good-paying, family-supported jobs to Wisconsin is the right thing to do — regardless of politics.” Gov. Scott Walker in a tweet
Foxconn’s effects on the environment. Statewide, 62% of those polled were very concerned or somewhat concerned that the Foxconn project will have an impact on water or environmental quality, while 32% were not worried.
The survey of 800 registered Wisconsin voters by cellphone and landline telephones was conducted Feb. 25 to Thursday. The margin of error for the entire sample was plus or minus 4.5%.