The Milwaukee Post

August 18, 2017

Milwaukee Post

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8 • Milwaukee County Post • August 18, 2017 It is evident that this column needs to be as blunt as possible. To state Republican leg- islators dealing with the Foxconn deal: Don't screw this up. DON'T SCREW THIS UP. Did the all-caps make it clear enough? Ten days ago, it would have been unthink- able that Gov. Scott Walker's own party could somehow mess up Wisconsin winning the largest investment by a foreign company in American history. But then Republican Senate leader Scott Fitzgerald started bab- bling about "not having the votes," giving hope to the anti-business left that it could actually kill this deal. The New York Times and Wall Street Journal have both reported that the deal in Wisconsin is in trouble. The unthinkable has become thinkable. Foxconn will transform Wisconsin and jump-start an almost nonexistent technolo- gy manufacturing base in America. It will end the population drain from our state, rad- ically reverse Wisconsin's "bad for busi- ness" reputation, and permanently end the poaching of Wisconsin jobs by Southern states who offer better incentives and inocu- lation from unions. It is one of the biggest game-changers in Wisconsin history. Yet, Fitzgerald and some Republicans are wringing their hands about the "cost" of the deal. They have made the all-too-typical mis- take of counting governmental costs as the only economic factor to be considered. The Ernst & Young analysis of the deal (avail- able on my website, belling.com) lays out the impact on the Wisconsin economy in the bil- lions and explains the boom that can occur when private-sector dollars multiply several times over. This nuclear blast of private cap- ital into Wisconsin bank accounts dwarfs whatever impact it has on the state budget. So, what's really going on here? There are several factors at work. Republican sources tell me Fitzgerald and Senate Republicans are fed up with Assembly Speaker Robin Vos and his caucus for holding up passage of the state budget with their absurd calls to delay the Zoo Interchange project and scrap all trans- portation borrowing. Fitzgerald and the Senate want to use the Foxconn package to force the Assembly to end its asinine budget posturing. Fitz and the Senate are right on the budget and Vos and the Assembly have been petulant and irresponsible for months, but Foxconn can't be leverage. Foxconn is 90 times more important than the internal GOP budget squabbles. There's more and it again relates to Madison. The state Legislative Fiscal Bureau, staffed by the type of liberal hacks that pollute state government at all levels, prepared an absurd report on the Foxconn incentive package that grotesquely misstat- ed the "break even" point for the state budg- et. By the bureau's own acknowledgment the numbers are "highly speculative." They are also inaccurate. As I reported on my radio show, the numbers the LFB used are based on no employees getting raises, or paying additional taxes, for 20 years! This is analytical quackery. The LFB report gratuitously highlighted the impact on the state budget while refus- ing to even calculate the impact on the state economy or factor in the additional sales and other taxes paid by the new residents of Wisconsin Foxconn will attract. Worst of all, the LFB report acts as though governmental expenditures must be evalu- ated on when they break even. Really? When do we break even on MPS? On state public radio? On Barrett's streetcar? On welfare? Government generally never gets a penny back on its programs. Yet the LFB acts as though Foxconn exists to turn a profit for the budget in Madison. It is alarming that a Republican leader like Fitzgerald shares their odd priorities. Then there's the "Madison wing" that operates behind the scenes. The website run by the once-conservative MacIver Institute is filled with anti-Foxconn propaganda. One of MacIver's hacks even used a guest host- ing gig on my radio station to shill for Fitzgerald's Foxconn obstruction. Madison has poisoned Republican politics for decades. These think-tankers, legislative staffers and others have never given a rip about southeast Wisconsin or anywhere else more than 20 miles from the Capitol Dome. They are moderates living in Liberalville and have been obstructing true conserva- tives from southeast Wisconsin and other parts of the state forever. These are the peo- ple who admire Charlie Sykes for his exces- sive anti-Trumpism and regard conserva- tives like me as embarrassments. MacIver boss Brett Healy emailed me that the Foxconn story has "many sides." No, Brett, it doesn't. It has two. Bring Foxconn to Wisconsin and light up our state or blow the whole deal. It's time for choosing. Fitzgerald is whining that the Senate needs many weeks to ponder Foxconn. He insults intelligence by saying anything else is irresponsibly rushing through the deal the way Nancy Pelosi's Democrats rammed through Obamacare. If Fitzgerald and his fellow 19 GOP senators can't read the Foxconn proposal in three weeks, they are either in need of remedial education or pathetically underworked. The final aspect of the anti-Foxconn wave is the news media. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, the Business Journal and others have been been relentless in hyping the "risks" of Foxconn and have downplayed the advantages. The media hates Walker and loathes that he is getting credit for the Foxconn win and they hate business. The vast majority of Republican voters want the Foxconn deal approved. Will Republican legislators listen to them or will they listen to a bunch of recall signers who work in the Legislative Reference Bureau? Will they listen to the loyal GOP backers who have dreamed we can become an eco- nomic hot spot like the Southern states that have been killing us? Or will they read the tripe from the burnouts at a Madison think tank? Will they pay attention to actual GOP voters or will they listen to lobbyists paid by the billionaire Koch brothers? This is no time to play games. The state Assembly should pass Foxconn this week and the state Senate should pass it next week. Under no scenario can this be allowed to go past Labor Day. Getting back to being blunt: If the Republicans blow this, they will lose their legislative majority. And the individual members who mess it up will have Republican primaries. Pass Foxconn now. Do you hear us yet? (Mark Belling is the host of a daily WISN radio talk show. His column appears weekly in the Milwaukee Post. Send your personal correspondences to Mark Belling at Clear Channel Communications, c/o WISN, 12100 W. Howard Ave., Greenfield, WI 53228). MARK BELLING STANDING UP for MILWAUKEE Memo to GOP: Don't blow Foxconn deal OPINION Aug. 4 question What do you think of the $10 billion Foxconn development likely coming to southeastern Wisconsin and the anticipated $3 billion in incentives from the state as well as the ripple impact creating more jobs than the eventual 13,000 announced positions at Foxconn? Creating jobs is a noble investment, but are we sure this fast-track effort is helping to build the American dream or is it just building the foreign Foxconn empire? Our politicians need to slow down and curb the euphoria. It is our money they are playing fast and loose with — money that could be used to assist smaller American businesses and infrastructure needs. Whatever hap- pened to "America first"? — Sandy Sue Szanderek Bay View This week's question What did you think of the rare eclipse — in many places in totality — across the country on Aug. 21? Or, what did you think of the early Aug. 14 start for the Milwaukee Public Schools? The last student day is scheduled for May 21. (Choose one.) Editor's note: When responding to the Question of the Week, please include your full name with spelling, phone number and city where you live. Phone numbers will not be published. Anonymous responses are no longer accepted by the publication. Call 744- 6370, Ext. 15 and leave a brief answer. Readers may also send an email with a brief answer to: dmuck@conleynet.com. Question of the week Send your letters to: The Milwaukee Post, c/o Dan Muckelbauer, 3397 S. Howell Ave., Milwaukee, WI 53207, or by email to: dmuck@conleynet.com. We reserve the right to edit letters for style, length and clarity. Letters should be typewritten or printed and include full name, phone number and address. Please keep your letters to no more than 400 words. Letters policy

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