Wisconsin goes big to lure a factory. Critics say it doesn’t make sense.

The Christian Science Monitor ^ | September 27, 2017 | Simon Montlake

[Jagermonster]

FINDING THE PATTERNS   Tax breaks worth $3 billion draw a giant Foxconn plant for up to 13,000 workers to make display screens. But economists question the math of an arms race for jobs, and say it advantages big firms at the expense of startups.

If all goes to plan, a giant Taiwanese-owned electronics factory will break ground next year in southeastern Wisconsin. The $10 billion plant is supersized: at 20 million square feet, it would be five times the size of Boeing’s main plant in Everett, Wash., and would employ up to 13,000 workers to make screens for devices used in homes, cars, and hospitals.

Equally supersized is the incentives package that Wisconsin is offering to Foxconn Technology Group to build its first US plant there. With $3 billion in tax breaks, the package is reportedly the most generous ever awarded to a foreign investor. It has stirred controversy in Wisconsin where lawmakers voted last week along largely partisan lines to approve it.

Foxconn, which makes iPhones and other devices for Apple, among other tech brands, isn’t alone in seeking out favorable terms from local officials. Amazon recently lit a fuse among big cities by soliciting offers for a new North American site to rival its headquarters in Seattle. Several states are vying for a $1.6 billion auto plant to be built by Toyota and Mazda, with the promise of 4,000 direct hires.

At a time of anxiety over well-paying jobs, states and cities are upping the ante in cutting deals with corporations, a trend that both reflects and reinforces the concentration of market power in many industries. While states have always competed for investment, the tax incentives offered have grown increasingly more ...

[Jagermonster]

Excerpted per rules.

[UB355]

Incomplete reportage. The incentives are results based indexed to employment at the facility.

[buckalfa]

Part of me dislikes the “state” being an investment banker and giving largess to certain individuals and businesses and not to all. The other part of me realizes this is how the economic development game is played and I hope that Governor Walker got all the I’s dotted and T’s crossed to protect the taxpayers.

[Jagermonster]

It seems like the ‘new stadium’ game, though. I would hope that the numbers balance and show a net positive for the state, but it feels like a race to the bottom.