>> The special session bill
that would approve the incentive
package for Foxconn is steaming
through the Legislature.
The Assembly is scheduled to
vote on it next week.
The Senate will hear the bill
before the Joint Finance
Committee.
In tonight's Capitol Insight,
we check in with Capitol Bureau
Chief at Wisconsin Public Radio,
Shawn Johnson, on the latest.
Thanks for being here, Shawn.
>> Hey, Fred.
>> Between now and
the floor action, lawmakers are
working on amendments.
Do we know how many
and what they're about?
>> In terms of the amendments
that are being worked on by
Adam Neylon, who chairs that
committee-- the Republican
lawmaker who chairs the
committee that's hearing
the Foxconn bill.
He said there's going to be
about 7 to 10 amendments that
will get rolled into one.
He's looking for bipartisan
support on those, and those
would have language in there
about a Wisconsin first
priority, but that would not be
a mandate.
There would be language in there
so that it would make clear this
was not letting the Department
of Natural Resources do whatever
it wants to in terms of
permitting for the Foxconn plant
but the devil is always in the
details on that stuff.
There would be no benchmarks on
job creation, and I think one of
the most significant things that
we learned is that that
committee is making an effort to
make sure whatever they do with
amendments doesn't change the
memorandum of understanding that
was signed by Governor Scott
Walker and the Chairman of
Foxconn.
Essentially whatever the
Legislature does through this
committee they want to make sure
it's not big enough that it
changes that.
>> So that Terry Gou of Foxconn
does not walk away from it?
>> Right.
If they are not going to make
changes significant enough
to change that memorandum of
understanding, they're working
around the edges at that point.
>> Senate majority leader Scott
Fitzgerald late this week said
he wants the bill to go before
Joint Finance for a hearing.
He has concern about these
benchmarks of which you speak.
Take a look at what he told WPR
Capitol reporter Laurel White
earlier this week.
>> If Foxconn comes, locals
make the investments, the state
makes the investment and
the jobs aren't coming as
quickly as anticipated or
forecasted.
We would like to see some type
of protection there or assurance
that the jobs are going to
happen.
>> It looks like late
this week he will settle for the
benchmarks not being baked into
this bill.
What kind of assurances has he
gotten?
>>You at least see maybe, if not
all of his positions on Foxconn,
his tone did evolve on it
this week, and he went from
wanting those in law where it
would be an ironclad guarantee
to after he talked with
representatives from the
Wisconsin Economic Development
Corporation WEDC,
which is administering
the contract with Foxconn.
They said we could put those
guarantees in the contract, and
so you don't need to deal with
those in state law.
It wouldn't carry the strength
putting job guarantees in state
law, but Senator Fitzgerald said
they would be taken care of in
the contract with WEDC and
that would be okay with him.
>> What about the
Fiscal Bureau memo that came out
earlier in the week talking
about how the breakeven year on
the deal with Foxconn would be
2043, is that giving pause to
lawmakers on both sides?
>> He said when it came out, it
was striking stuff in there, and
to put that in more context, the
memo was saying that if Foxconn
creates 13,000 jobs, which is
the ceiling for what they said
they could create and spins off
and creates another 22,000 jobs
elsewhere, all of that tax
revenue compared to the tax
revenue the state is giving
Foxconn would balance out in
2043, 26 years from now.
Fitzgerald is the one that
talked about this so far, but
he's got some push-back from
conservative talk radio on that,
and they essentially said get
this done fast, and they are not
kind of on-board with any kind
of trepidation on that.
>> Meanwhile, Scott
Fitzgerald wants to do the
state budget at the same time as
the Foxconn bill or roughly the
same time?
What kind of a heavy lift
is that?
>> It is a heavy lift.
You have a lot of interplay
between the Foxconn bill and the
budget bill, because in the
Foxconn bill there is
$252 million in borrowing for
this i94 expansion between
Milwaukee and Chicago near where
this Foxconn plant would be
built.
By the way, a huge priority for
Senator Speaker Robin Vos, and
essentially they put part of the
transportation budget into the
Foxconn bill already, and you
know, through that lens it does
kind of make sense they deal
with them around the same time.
>> There are going to be
a lot of long nights in the
Joint Finance Committee.
>> Pretty good prediction, yes.
>> Shawn Johnson,
thanks very much.
>> You are welcome.