Foxconn Technology Group is not saying whether it plans to invest $30 billion in the United States, as President Donald Trump claimed the company’s leader told him “off the record.”
Trump announced to a group of small business leaders at the White House on Tuesday that Foxconn CEO Terry Gou told him privately that the Taiwanese electronics manufacturer was going to invest $30 billion in the U.S. The company signed a deal with Wisconsin last week to build a $10 billion display panel manufacturing plant and Trump did not specify where the additional spending would be.
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The new plant in Wisconsin, which is scheduled to open in 2020 with 3,000 employees, will construct liquid crystal display monitors used in televisions and computers. It would bring Foxconn closer to its biggest market and be the first LCD monitor factory located outside of Asia.
The Wisconsin Legislature is considering a $3 billion incentive package that must be passed by the end of September as part of the deal with Foxconn. A public hearing on the proposal was scheduled for Thursday, just six days after a draft of the plan was released and eight days after news of the state’s deal with Foxconn broke.
Republicans who control the Legislature are split on how quickly to pass the bill, with state Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald saying there are too many unanswered questions about the tax breaks that must be addressed before a vote. Some Democrats and others have questioned whether the incentives are too much, while also raising concerns about the proposed waiving of state environmental permit requirements and other regulations to speed up construction.
U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan, a Democratic congressman who represents a swath of south-central Wisconsin that includes Madison, questioned during a news conference Wednesday how many jobs will actually materialize and how much those workers will really be paid. He added that he’s worried Foxconn might abandon its plans if Trump fails to follow through on his proposal to raise import tariffs.
“We’ve got to be very real about what this actually means for Wisconsin taxpayers,” Pocan said.
