Wisconsin Senate leader Scott Fitzgerald wants more job protections in Foxconn bill but says it will pass

MADISON — The leader of the Wisconsin Senate said Thursday that before approving a $3 billion incentive package for Foxconn Technology Group he wants more benchmarks on job creation by the Taiwanese electronics giant.

"What if later on, a year from now nothing’s happened? Two years from now, still nothing’s happened and the jobs aren’t coming?" Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald (R-Juneau) said on WISN-AM.

In comments to WISN and to Green Bay-area conservative radio host Jerry Bader, Fitzgerald said he would like to ensure Foxconn creates a certain number of jobs by certain deadlines.

But after meeting later Thursday with top appointees of Gov. Scott Walker, Fitzgerald said he believes that those additional job creation requirements could be handled through contract negotiations between Foxconn and the Walker administration. Lawmakers wouldn't need to put those benchmarks into the Foxconn legislation, which Fitzgerald said would likely pass his house. 

"Right now, I don't see the Senate having a lot of amendments," said Fitzgerald, who hopes to schedule a hearing on the bill in the Legislature's budget committee on Aug. 22. 

Spokesmen for both Walker and the Wisconsin Economic Development Corp. argued Thursday against putting those requirements in the legislation, saying it would leave the state jobs agency with less flexibility in its talks with the company. WEDC is negotiating a contract with Foxconn to flesh out the memorandum of understanding that Walker and company chairman Terry Gou signed last month. 

"It would weaken the state’s negotiating position to comment on the contract at this stage because it is not finalized," said Tom Evenson, a spokesman for the governor. 

Also Thursday, Fitzgerald sounded a note of caution on the stalled state budget bill, saying he hoped to restart work on that bill the week of Aug. 21 and to set aside additional cash to avoid a budget shortfall. The GOP senator said he has heard from other Midwest leaders that they aren't seeing as much growth in tax revenue as expected.

Forecasts for state tax revenue were based in part on assumptions that President Donald Trump and Congress could pass major tax cuts and investments in infrastructure over the next year. It's now less clear whether Congress will do so.

"We're continually hearing that there's a possibility that the economy could soften," Fitzgerald said. "We don't want to be in a position where we have to revisit the budget."

Fitzgerald made his comments a day after saying he didn't yet have the votes for the Foxconn bill. The Senate leader is moving more cautiously than Assembly GOP leaders, who plan to vote on Aug. 17 on the incentive package, which is aimed at getting Foxconn to develop a $10 billion plant on 1,000 acres in Racine County or Kenosha County that is supposed to employ 3,000 initially and as many as 13,000 in the coming years.

Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R-Rochester) said he was working on an amendment to address concerns that the Village of Mount Pleasant — a top potential site for the plant — could annex the adjoining Town of Yorkville.

For his part, Vos said the amendment would allow any town adjacent to Foxconn’s development to incorporate as a village with a vote of the town board. That would simplify the process for becoming a village, a unit of government that has more power than a town and can more easily avoid getting annexed by neighboring communities.

That could affect Yorkville or the Town of Paris in Kenosha County, depending on where Foxconn decides to locate.

Yorkville Town Chairman Peter Hansen said he had talked briefly with Vos about the proposal but needed to discuss it with other town officials.

“It’s important that the town protects itself,” Hansen said.

Paris Town Chairman Virgil Gentz said he liked the concept but wanted more information on the proposal.

In an interview with WISN-AM host Mark Belling, Vos expressed frustration with Fitzgerald for not  moving faster and said he was working with the Walker administration to make sure amendments to the Foxconn bill didn't "screw up this deal."

“I am falling all over myself to see how can I generate the very best deal for the company and the taxpayer,” Vos said.

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The state could pay up to $1.5 billion to Foxconn in proposed cash incentives for job creation over 15 years if the company began hiring and continued to ramp that up. 

But Foxconn could receive up to $1.35 billion in separate cash payments if the company invested in the plant and equipment in Wisconsin, even if the plant turned out to be highly automated and employed fewer workers than expected. The deal doesn't currently contain a minimum number of jobs that Foxconn would have to create to receive payments from taxpayers.

This week, the nonpartisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau reported that under the legislation, state taxpayers would not recoup their investment in Foxconn until 2043. The bureau described that timeline as the best-case scenario, with the Wisconsin plant fully operational and spawning 22,000 additional jobs at suppliers and other companies that would come to the area.

Rep. Cory Mason, a Democrat running for mayor of Racine, said he is working on amendments that would limit some of the environmental exemptions for the company in the Foxconn legislation, as well as guarantee people from Wisconsin get the jobs. 

"People are excited about the jobs, but they're concerned about the adverse impacts for the environment," Mason said.