You
go ahead.
Secretary Hughes thanks very much for being here.
So good to be here.
So Foxconn has now qualified for a third round of state tax credits bringing in the total amount
that is received from the state to nearly 44 million dollars.
Do you understand the long range prospects for Foxconn after not living up to its original
promise?
Well Foxconn has really become like one of the great companies that we have in Wisconsin-Milwaukee
who will quick trip all of these companies that are locating here and really settling
in.
So with over a thousand employees and almost 600 million dollars in investment, we expect
that Foxconn is here for the long term and will continue to produce and employ folks down
in southeast Wisconsin in a really productive way.
What lessons learned from Foxconn is we to employing with other companies when it comes
to tax credits?
Well it's really important to work with the company to understand their long term goals,
to set them up for success.
So our tax credit programs are based on performance.
Companies don't receive a tax credit until they perform, create the jobs, spend the
CapEx.
And so as we work with Foxconn the same way we work with other companies, we want them to
be successful and within the parameters of what they expect for their strategy.
Now we did come this month head to respond to a state audit in which four of the recommendations
involved closer tracking of tax credits that have been awarded or need to have been revoked.
Should we have confidence in we did in the disbursement of taxpayers money toward attracting
businesses?
Yeah you know we have really over the years tightened up how we verify companies and their
performance around tax credits.
It's critically important that the companies provide us their payroll information and their
information about CapEx.
We continue to work with the Legislative Audit Bureau to find ways to improve and none of
the findings of the LAB were around mismanagement.
They were just really about how can we continue to do things better.
So meanwhile big news with Microsoft's purchase of what 1100 acres of land that was originally
designed for Foxconn with Microsoft planning to build at least four data centers and expansion
of its previously announced project investing a billion dollars into a single data center.
How big of a boost is this Microsoft deal?
Well having a company like Microsoft a true blue chip American company decide to create
such an opportunity in Wisconsin is incredibly important and really exciting.
It brings in high-tech artificial intelligence all of these things that we see in the economy
of the future and so Microsoft choosing Wisconsin is really a testament to what we've done to
create the workforce that they need to create the infrastructure that they need and we're
so excited to have them here.
Now I understand that their data centers are expected to employ like hundreds of tech people
but potentially thousands of construction workers.
What do you know about whether or not those are expected to be Wisconsin workers?
Well what we've already seen is Microsoft has started their work on a $500 million data center.
They're working with a number of Wisconsin companies and of course you know down there
on the border of Illinois we will see some Illinois companies experiencing opportunities
with Microsoft but we know that Microsoft wants Wisconsin to succeed.
Brad Smith talked about this long-term relationship that we are creating and so it's important
to Microsoft they've already started working with UW Milwaukee with Gateway Tech so we
know that they're committed to Wisconsin.
I don't have to tell you that Wisconsin has seen a lot of attention in the world of economic
development this year including being awarded as a regional technology hub with the ability
to apply for up to $70 million in federal funding.
What will this mean for this state?
This is one of the most exciting things that's happened this year.
This is a designation by the federal government.
There are 31 around the country but what's exciting about Wisconsin is it's really based on
biohealth and we see between Milwaukee and Madison real opportunities for companies to
work together and create this amazing corridor around personalized medicine.
It's really determining how you can help someone with the exact treatment they need
at the exact time that they need it.
And we see opportunities around advanced manufacturing with that research and
entrepreneurism so all of these things will come together as part of this regional tech hub
and we'll see benefits extending up to Green Bay and Eau Claire so it's really
an all Wisconsin effort.
Thank you.
Over the summer they had their whole downtown ripped up for noon Main Street and it's all
put together back together now and they're celebrating it's like the cutest little town.
It is really cute.
It's really lacking in diversity but it is very cute.
Many of our communities are but I think it's hard to say.
It'd be nice to see some more diversity there certainly but that just has to happen.
Yeah I guess.
Well thank you very much.
Thank you.
Appreciate it.