No Wisconsin public official looks good coming out of recent meetings with Foxconn executives by withholding what took place.
Refusing to reveal what got discussed suggests that a) the meetings were a substantive waste of time, or b) the company laid down a no-disclosure rule because it had things to say that the public would not like to hear - - including that it still cannot commit to a real plan creating the thousands of good-paying, blue-collar jobs with signatures and handshakes..
Foxconn could withhold plenty of information about its plans if it were only spending its own money on its Wisconsin activities, but the public sector has promised Foxconn more than $4 billion in taxpayer dollars.
The legislative leaders in the meetings were among those ramrodding that effort. They also legislated the suspension of basic environmental protections and fast-tracked judicial privileges for the project, and set in motion more public processes that moved people off their land and out of their homes.
So a huge, sprawl-inducing, fresh water-fueled site could be cleared and made more accessible with a quarter billion public dollars in controversial highway expansion to serve the company's earlier, and already trimmed, and as yet-to-be-nailed down plan.
Never in Wisconsin has so much been provided to a company with so little received in return.
Bulldozed acreage, displaced homeowners, broken promises and 'no comment' from our top elected officials does not a public-private partnership make.
The legislative leaders in the meetings were among those ramrodding that effort. They also legislated the suspension of basic environmental protections and fast-tracked judicial privileges for the project, and set in motion more public processes that moved people off their land and out of their homes.
So a huge, sprawl-inducing, fresh water-fueled site could be cleared and made more accessible with a quarter billion public dollars in controversial highway expansion to serve the company's earlier, and already trimmed, and as yet-to-be-nailed down plan.
Never in Wisconsin has so much been provided to a company with so little received in return.
Bulldozed acreage, displaced homeowners, broken promises and 'no comment' from our top elected officials does not a public-private partnership make.
Wisconsin needs more honest brokering and transparency after two years-plus of shell games and favoritism, and the withholding of details by all parties of meetings with the Governor, Assembly Speaker and Senate Majority at this late date is an inexcusable, confidence-sapping slap.
I will add this disturbing chapter in the Foxconn story to an archive I have maintained for 26 months, here.
