Showing posts with label JSOnline Milwaukee. Show all posts
Showing posts with label JSOnline Milwaukee. Show all posts
Friday, April 18, 2025
Friday, November 29, 2024
Friday, November 29, 2019
Foxconn likely will be a drag on Wisconsin economy, market-oriented researchers suggest
From JSOnline:
Rick Romell, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Rick Romell, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
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| Work is done on structures at Foxconn Technology Group's planned flat-screen manufacturing complex in Mount Pleasant on Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2019. - Photo by Mike De Sisti/Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (Photo: Mike De Sisti/Milwaukee Journal Sentinel) |
Widely criticized by many on the left, Wisconsin’s deal with Foxconn Technology Group is now also under fire from the right side of the political spectrum.
A recent analysis published by the Mercatus Center at George Mason University suggests that the Foxconn development – considering costs as well as benefits -- is likely to end up being a net loss to Wisconsin’s economy.
“It wasn’t really talked about as a gamble but that’s really what it is,” said Matthew Mitchell, senior research fellow at Mercatus and the lead author of the study. “Anytime you do something like this you’re really trying to make a bet. And the risk factor here was not really emphasized.”
The analysis by Mitchell and his colleagues contains assumptions and contingencies: How important was Wisconsin’s subsidy offer in Foxconn’s decision to locate here? How much will Foxconn spend on its planned flat-screen factory?
But overall, the authors say the “most realistic range of estimates” indicates the Foxconn deal for the plant the company now is building will end up costing Wisconsin’s economy $1.2 billion to $6.0 billion over 15 years.
That would shave somewhere between two-hundredths of a percent to about one-tenth of a percent off what the authors estimate the state’s gross domestic product will total over the period.
A key takeaway, according to Mitchell: Descriptions of the economic effects of targeted incentives such as those Foxconn stands to receive typically lack context.
“They tend to, I think, dramatically overestimate the benefits from subsidies (and) they completely ignore the costs,” he said.
While the Foxconn deal has been sharply criticized by many as an extreme example of corporate welfare, Mitchell and his colleagues are hardly coming at their research from the left. The Mercatus Center is a market-oriented think tank with connections to the billionaire Koch family.
But criticism of targeted economic incentives “brings together interesting ideological…bedfellows,” Mitchell said.
“If you’re a free market person there’s reason to oppose favoritism on the grounds that it messes with the market process,” he said. “And if you’re a progressive there’s reason to oppose it because it favors the wealthy and well-connected at the expense of the poor and the unknown.”
With then-Gov. Scott Walker backing the package, the Legislature in 2017 approved up to $3 billion in special tax credits intended to spur Foxconn to build a $10 billion flat-screen manufacturing complex and create 13,000 Wisconsin jobs. Given the state’s tax policies for manufacturing, the vast majority of the credits actually are likely to be cash payments.
Foxconn has stuck by its 13,000-jobs pledge, but whether the firm ultimately captures anything close to the $3 billion is open to question. The initial deal envisioned that the company would build the largest and costliest type of flat-screen plant currently constructed, but Foxconn has scaled back those plans and now is building a significantly smaller factory in Mount Pleasant.
Monday, October 7, 2019
Police find $935,000 in closet of south side Milwaukee home in bust of counterfeit THC vape operation
From JSOnline:
Raquel Rutledge and Mary Spicuzza, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Raquel Rutledge and Mary Spicuzza, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Acting on a tip from a concerned citizen, Milwaukee police uncovered nearly $1 million in cash and more than 10,000 THC vaping cartridges in a small home on a modest street on the city’s south side last week.
Police searched a 2-bedroom Cape Cod on W. Norwich Court on Tuesday, finding 18 pounds of marijuana, aside from the cartridges filled with THC oil, as well as a loaded weapon, and took into custody a couple in their 30’s living there.
According to a criminal complaint filed Saturday, police arrested Govanny "Gio" Molina, 34, and Amanda Ware, 30, both on charges of maintaining a drug trafficking place, use of a dangerous weapon and possession with intent to distribute more than 10,000 grams of THC or 200 plants, as party to a crime.
The cash was found in a bedroom closet tucked inside two 20-gallon plastic storage totes, one with the $450,500 and the other with $452,680. Police also found about $30,000 in a dresser drawer.
The cash was found in a bedroom closet tucked inside two 20-gallon plastic storage totes, one with the $450,500 and the other with $452,680. Police also found about $30,000 in a dresser drawer.
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