Members of the Legislature’s Joint Finance Committee will be in southeastern Wisconsin this morning, for a public hearing on an incentive package for Foxconn.
The hearing will be at Gateway Technical College in Sturtevant – which is located in the general area where Foxconn says it wants to build a $10 billion electronics factory that could eventually employ up to 13,000 workers. Lawmakers are considering an incentive package for the company that would cost the state $3 billion.
Democratic state Senator Jon Erpenbach (D-Middleton), who sits on the committee, says he is looking forward to hearing from residents of the area who will be most heavily affected by the development. However, he also says there are a lot of questions he wants to ask officials with Governor Scott Walker’s administration. “I really want to hear from the administration as to why they think this is such a good deal and…what their plans are in case it does fall apart.”
Erpenbach says he would also like to hear from the company itself, which only sent written testimony to a hearing an Assembly committee held on the bill earlier this month. “I think it’s important the taxpayers of the state hear from somebody who’s asking for $3 billion in economic development from the state,” he argues.
A spokesman for one of the Republican co-chairs of the committee says they do expect members of the Walker administration to be present at today’s hearing. It was not immediately clear whether Foxconn had any representatives scheduled to offer testimony though.
Tuesday’s hearing at Gateway Technical College in Sturtevant will begin at 11am.
