With Walker having signed it nearly six months ago, and roadwork underway at the site since January, you wouldn't be expecting another outbreak of Foxconn fever at this late date.
But that's exactly what the Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce did Thursday when it released a new, "conservative" study that gives the project a fresh coat of paint .
Here's an alternative analysis:
Scott Walker and dozens of legislator-Foxconn boosters running for re-election this fall needed a boost of their own after the authoritative Marquette University Law School poll only weeks ago produced findings and news like this which no Foxconn backer is going to put into a campaign ad or talking point:
But that's exactly what the Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce did Thursday when it released a new, "conservative" study that gives the project a fresh coat of paint .
FOXCONN PACKAGE RETURNS $18 IN ECONOMIC IMPACT FOR EVERY $1 IN STATE INCENTIVEIn reporting the MMAC study, the Journal Sentinel notes the methodological and statistical flaws in earlier efforts which had justified record-breaking taxpayer subsidies headed Foxconn's way, and you could say that all the MMAC - - its the SE Wisconsin's regional chamber of commerce - - is doing is straightening out that record.
Here's an alternative analysis:
Scott Walker and dozens of legislator-Foxconn boosters running for re-election this fall needed a boost of their own after the authoritative Marquette University Law School poll only weeks ago produced findings and news like this which no Foxconn backer is going to put into a campaign ad or talking point:
Voters think the State of Wisconsin overpaid on the massive Foxconn deal in spite of it bringing benefits to the Milwaukee area, a new poll has found.
In the most extensive polling to date on the multibillion dollar deal, the Marquette University Law School poll found that 49% of voters think the Foxconn Technology Group factory won't be worth its cost to taxpayers and 38% think it will.And this:
A majority of voters across political parties and regions of the state — 66% to 25% — don't think the deal will help their local employers.And this:
Statewide, 62% of those polled were very concerned or somewhat concerned that the Foxconn project will have an impact on water or environmental quality, while 32% were not worried.And there have been other reports since the poll came out which would also explain why the project might need a fresh shine, such as:
WI DNR schedules hearings on Foxconn's whopping air pollution.
Foxconn-area residents angry over plans to take their homes
Foxconn finds way to stick 7 million-gallon straw into Lake MichiganAnd earlier, this:
Funding for state road down as much as $90 million. Foxconn cited.Look - - no one doubts Foxconn will produce spinoff benefits, but let's not pretend that there are no liabilities - - environmental, public health and budgetary - - which need to be acknowledged and then subtracted from an otherwise one-dimensional bottom line.