State: Foxconn Is Ready To Build

Foxconn is ready to build its ten-billion dollar L-C-D screen plant in southeast Wisconsin, and an announcement is expected soon on a site. That’s what Mark Hogan, head of the state’s job creation agency, told an Assembly committee Thursday as it considered a three-billion dollar subsidy package that would relax environmental rules for the plant and complete a freeway nearby. Hogan says most of the eventual 13-thousand jobs would pay at least 20-dollars an hour, and Administration Secretary Scott Neitzel says it’s an opportunity the state cannot pass up with a total payroll of up to 800-million dollars a year once the plant is fully running. Foxconn chairman Terry Gou submitted a statement but Assembly Democrat Amanda Stuck of Appleton said that if the company wanted so much from taxpayers, somebody should have been there to answer questions. Invited speakers spent hours talking up the project — Democrats questioned whether there was any guarantee of job creation — and the general public was still waiting at mid evening to have its say.