Wisconsin finance committee selling Senate on $3 billion for Foxconn

Many lawmakers expressed skepticism during meeting Tuesday 

Still some convincing needed for some Wisconsin lawmakers to buy into Foxconn.

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s administration spent much of Tuesday selling the legislature’s powerful finance committee that the $3-billion incentive package going to the Taiwan-based manufacturer was good for the state.

Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation secretary Mark Hogan and others in the administration discount a state analysis counting taxpayer payback on $3 billion promised to Foxconn at 25 years.

“Those are a linear view of the payback and they do not take into consideration all the other things that we have seen and felt and heard over the course of the last four-plus months relative to the opportunities in the state,” Hogan said.

Many lawmakers expressed skepticism during the meeting.

Hogan says that 25-year analysis doesn’t take into account all of the business opportunities that could pop up once the Taiwan-based manufacturer breaks ground in the state.

“We have heard from several of the venture capitalists in the state of Wisconsin,” Hogan said, “feeling this is a game-changer relative to making Wisconsin a point where the the east coast and the west coast dollars are now going to be looking at Wisconsin for an investment.”

Hogan, at one point, tried explaining why Foxconn’s job credit was double that of any other company in the state. Pretty simple, really, he said.

“Foxconn is taking an industry segment that does not exist in the United States, and they’re taking it from Asia and moving it to Wisconsin,” Hogan explained.

After the finance committee review, the state Senate still has to approve the exact incentive package the Assembly approved late last week.