David Michael Miller
The story is said to be fictional but is very colorful: In the days of Catherine the Great, her minister, Grigory Potemkin, supposedly erected phony settlements along the Dnieper River in order to show the visiting Russian empress how prosperous the Crimea region was.
We are now getting our own version of Potemkin villages, courtesy of Gov. Scott Walker and the Taiwanese company Foxconn. The company’s new manufacturing plant is being built in Racine County, but in recent months we’ve heard about little Foxconns, you might call them, being erected in other cities. Why would the company expand all over before it has even built the Racine plant?
Perhaps because Gov. Walker is in trouble. A year ago, when he signed the initial agreement giving Foxconn a $3 billion subsidy, Republicans were certain this would ensure his reelection.
But in October, the Marquette University Law School poll of southeastern Wisconsin voters found only 38 percent thought the deal would benefit the state, and the Democratic leaning Public Policy Polling found 34 percent of voters statewide supported the deal, with 41 percent opposed. Suddenly the deal Walker couldn’t stop touting was one he now downplayed, even omitting it from his reelection announcement. As Marquette’s pollster Charles Franklin told the Wisconsin State Journal, “To not include a single sentence mentioning Foxconn suggests that there is a perceived downside.”
By December, the price tag for Foxconn’s subsidy had risen to $4.1 billion, or $1,774 per household in Wisconsin. That included $134 million for roads to Foxconn’s plant, money siphoned from the transportation fund in a state with the second worst roads in America.
Walker badly needed some political cover and Foxconn quickly rescued him. In early February the company announced it would be buying a seven-story building in downtown Milwaukee for its new North American headquarters and “Wisconn Valley Innovation Center.”
But the polls were still discouraging. The Marquette poll in March 2018 found only 25 percent of voters statewide believed businesses where they live would benefit from the project.
But Foxconn soon was erecting more little villages. In June came news it would buy a six-story building in Green Bay to create another “innovation center” employing more than 200 engineers, which Walker declared would extend Foxconn’s footprint to “northeastern Wisconsin.”
Less than three weeks later, on July 16, Foxconn was back to announce another satellite: Yes, another “innovation center,” this time in Eau Claire, to begin operations in early 2019, with 150 employees.
Walker was on hand for this, too, but the story line was getting suspect. In both cities the company said it wanted to attract top talent from area universities. Why these graduates couldn’t simply be hired at the Racine plant was unclear.
Equally iffy was the economic advantage for Foxconn of having three different innovation centers spread around the state. Using the exact same language in both Green Bay and Eau Claire, Foxconn officials declared the goal was to “inspire innovative ideas and catalyze cutting-edge solutions from companies and entrepreneurs” in the area.
Then why wasn’t Foxconn doing a satellite in Madison, with one of the top American research universities, and the fastest growth in high tech workers of any city in Wisconsin? And if the idea was to hire top college grads, why not target the state’s flagship university, rather than UW-Green Bay or the Chippewa Valley Technical College in Eau Claire, two institutions touted by Foxconn and Walker?
A Foxconn spokesperson says the company continues to have ongoing discussions with UW-Madison. But there’s no political advantage to be had for Walker in uber-liberal Madison.
For that matter, there’s reason to doubt the Green Bay and Eau Claire developments. I asked Foxconn what it’s paying for the buildings in Green Bay and Eau Claire and when it will close on the purchase: Will it be after the November election?
The company declined to answer, but did send a long email about its need to spread to other cities, boiling down to this: “Not all the knowledge, expertise, talent and suppliers that will be associated with our significant project... reside in the southeastern part of the state.”
No doubt, but are these potential employees and suppliers too shy to use computers, email and cell phones or simply drive along those new highways to Foxconn’s Racine campus that we taxpayers are financing? Why must the company bring its jobs to them instead?
Perhaps because every Democratic candidate for governor has condemned the Foxconn deal and one, Matt Flynn, has promised to fight it in court.
Foxconn has a long history of backing out of projects. If it could walk away from deals in India, Vietnam, Brazil and Pennsylvania, why not from Eau Claire and Green Bay? It can merely explain, some time after its generous benefactor is reelected, that economic conditions have changed, or that it’s having no problem getting the suppliers and employees it needs for its Racine plant, so it won’t need those Potemkin villages after all.
Bruce Murphy is the editor of UrbanMilwaukee.
