MILWAUKEE – In response to recent reports that Foxconn Technology Group is in talks to open a new manufacturing plant in either Saudi Arabia or the United Arab Emirates to produce microchips, electric vehicle parts, and other electronics, State Rep. David Bowen (D-Milwaukee) released the following statement:
“This week’s reports of Foxconn approaching Saudi Arabia and the UAE about the possibility of opening a new manufacturing plant in one of those countries makes it clear: Foxconn has truly turned its back on the state of Wisconsin and the United States of America.
While I was opposed to the Foxconn deal from the very beginning, once it went through I had hoped that Wisconsinites would get at least some return on investment from the project. But here we are, almost five years later and $750 million already spent for build out infrastructure, with almost nothing to show for it aside from empty buildings, community members who lost their land and homes to eminent domain, and the awful experience of having been sold a bill of bad goods by a company that has left a trail of such failed deals across the country and world.
Like many opposed to the deal, I watched what Foxconn had done to communities in Pennsylvania, Brazil, and elsewhere – making lofty promises in exchange for huge amounts of taxpayer money, only to return little to nothing in actual jobs and manufactured products. And now, we too are forced to watch as Foxconn attempts to negotiate a deal to build a new facility elsewhere while the Foxconn campus in Racine County sits nearly empty despite those millions of dollars of investment from our great state.
If there was ever any doubt that the Walker-Kleefisch Administration and Republican leadership led Wisconsinites into a raw deal with Foxconn all those years ago, these reports truly do away with any last shred of it. Wisconsin at the time should have invested more in our own entrepreneurs and the businesses already showing their commitment to our state and our communities, thereby guaranteeing increased innovation and economic growth here and not in other countries. The Foxconn deal was a failure then, and it’s an even bigger failure now.”
