You might check the grassroots Facebook page "A Better Mt. Pleasant" for information about inter-governmental tensions among local officials who have committed taxpayers to hundreds of millions of subsidies to Foxconn, but may need more money or amendment agreements to make the Lake Michigan diversion and waste water return flow on schedule.
Let's understand that this is the just the beginning of the problems, not just because of the size of the effort and its levels of complexity, but because it was rushed to approvals on paper to suit the election timetable of Scott Walker.
Get the signatures and move some dirt around and keep a lid in until November, and then, everyone else can contend with perhaps a 25-year payoff horizon, if we're lucky.
All this while we know that there will be flooding from runoff, that robotics will reduce the hiring, that market forces will continue to force changes already underway in what the plant may produce.
Take a look at some of the other large public projects in Wisconsin and how long it took to complete them.
Madison's approach to a civic center took about 50 years.
Miller Park's first financing plan collapsed, and the eventual project suffered a catastrophic physical collapse a few years later.
And these did not bump up against the state constitution's Public Trust Doctrine water parameters, an interstate water diversion compact, interstate and federal clean air issues already being litigated and a host of other very substantial matters yet to be resolved - - let alone acknowledged by Walker and his allies.
Not only is Foxconn, on paper, projected to be the biggest project in state history, it's the biggest rushed to a ground-breaking the tastes, all because Scott Walker needed it to make people forget he'd failed to keep his promise in four years to create 250,000 new jobs and needed fest material for campaign ads and Twitter posts that do not include a half-eaten sandwich or cup of frozen custard.
All this history and subject-matter is covered in this Foxconn archive. I'd suggest starting at the bottom of the list and reading towards the top and the most recent posts.
Thousands of acres like this cabbage field shown here in 2017 are now in an area designated 'blighted,' available to be seized by local government for Foxconn uses and 'developed' with public funds. Heads-up downstream when there's one of those more-frequent '100-year' storms
Let's understand that this is the just the beginning of the problems, not just because of the size of the effort and its levels of complexity, but because it was rushed to approvals on paper to suit the election timetable of Scott Walker.
Get the signatures and move some dirt around and keep a lid in until November, and then, everyone else can contend with perhaps a 25-year payoff horizon, if we're lucky.
All this while we know that there will be flooding from runoff, that robotics will reduce the hiring, that market forces will continue to force changes already underway in what the plant may produce.
Take a look at some of the other large public projects in Wisconsin and how long it took to complete them.
Madison's approach to a civic center took about 50 years.
Miller Park's first financing plan collapsed, and the eventual project suffered a catastrophic physical collapse a few years later.
And these did not bump up against the state constitution's Public Trust Doctrine water parameters, an interstate water diversion compact, interstate and federal clean air issues already being litigated and a host of other very substantial matters yet to be resolved - - let alone acknowledged by Walker and his allies.
Not only is Foxconn, on paper, projected to be the biggest project in state history, it's the biggest rushed to a ground-breaking the tastes, all because Scott Walker needed it to make people forget he'd failed to keep his promise in four years to create 250,000 new jobs and needed fest material for campaign ads and Twitter posts that do not include a half-eaten sandwich or cup of frozen custard.
All this history and subject-matter is covered in this Foxconn archive. I'd suggest starting at the bottom of the list and reading towards the top and the most recent posts.
Thousands of acres like this cabbage field shown here in 2017 are now in an area designated 'blighted,' available to be seized by local government for Foxconn uses and 'developed' with public funds. Heads-up downstream when there's one of those more-frequent '100-year' storms