Scott Walker bought the monorail.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m referring, of course, to the classic episode of The Simpsons<\/em> in which Springfield residents are fleeced by a fast-talking con man selling dreams of a monorail that will never work. Sound familiar? Because the monorail is actually Foxconn.<\/p>\n Reuters is reporting<\/a> that the LCD screen manufacturer is considering a major pivot. Rather than the 13,000 primarily manufacturing jobs initially promised, Foxconn is now talking about instead turning its Mt. Pleasant, Wis. campus into a \u201ctechnology hub.\u201d The state shelled out billions of dollars in tax incentives for blue collar jobs, which would be slashed dramatically in favor of research and development. (Or, as\u00a0Foxconn rep Louis Woo condescendingly says, \u201cknowledge\u201d jobs.)<\/p>\n This is just the latest in a series of broken promises by the Taiwanese manufacturer. First, they were going to make large LCD screens. Then they decided to make smaller ones<\/a>. Now, Woo says they will not make them at all.<\/p>\n \u201cIn Wisconsin, we\u2019re not building a factory,\u201d Woo cryptically told Reuters. \u201cYou can\u2019t use a factory to view our Wisconsin investment.\u201d<\/p>\n Perhaps the most infuriating aspect of the whole ordeal is former governor Scott Walker\u2019s inability to do even the slightest bit of research before dealing with Foxconn. Back in 2013<\/a>, roughly the same thing happened in Pennsylvania. A showy announcement, an exorbitant promise, and then\u2026 nothing. Foxconn \u201cfaded to black\u201d and the plant was never even built.<\/p>\n Foxconn is already scaling back their initial jobs promise. 5,200 positions by 2020 has become 1,000. It\u2019s unclear when the Taiwanese manufacturer plans to make good on the 13,000 jobs deal they sold to Walker. (And President Donald Trump, the artful dealmaker who treated our state<\/a> as nothing more than an empty square on a Monopoly board.)<\/p>\n And though Foxconn has restated their intent to fulfill their 13,000 job promise, doing so may be a fool\u2019s errand. The U.S. isn\u2019t equipped to fill that many \u201cknowledge jobs,\u201d says Bloomberg\u2019s Tim Culpan<\/a>. And the amount of backend and packaging jobs that are still created wouldn\u2019t even come close to touching the figures stated by the initial deal.<\/p>\n Unsurprisingly, the state GOP is trying to pin this all on Gov. Tony Evers, who has been in office LESS THAN A MONTH.<\/p>\n Republican legislative leaders @SpeakerVos<\/a> and @SenFitzgerald<\/a> say they blame @GovEvers<\/a> and not Foxconn for the Taiwan-based company’s change in plans<\/p>\n They say Evers has created a “wave of economic uncertainty” with an “anti-jobs agenda”<\/p>\n No word yet from Evers<\/p>\n \u2014 Scott Bauer (@sbauerAP) January 30, 2019<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n