Contact: Aaron Collins, 608-266-2254
DOA Secretary’s False Foxconn Statement
MADISON – On Monday, October 15, Department of Administration Secretary Ellen Nowak gave a presentation in Tomah on the Foxconn project. During the presentation she falsely claimed, “There’s not going to be any impact on other entities around the state because this is money we would never have otherwise seen coming into the state.”
Assembly Democratic Leader Gordon Hintz (D-Oshkosh) released the following statement on Secretary Nowak’s comments:
Under the very best case scenario, expenditures (cash payments) will exceed all direct and indirect state tax revenue through the year 2032-33. The total deficit over the next 15 years is estimated at $1.041 billion. The table below details the estimated budget impact of Foxconn over the next three state budgets.
| Biennial Budget | Foxconn Cost to Taxpayers |
| 2019-2021 | $122.23 million |
| 2021-2023 | $366.15 million |
| 2023-2025 | $393.84 million |
“I don’t understand how the Secretary of the agency tasked with overseeing the state budget doesn’t think $1 billion diverted from funding state programs is not going to have an “impact on entities around the state.” Secretary Nowak’s comments about Foxconn’s fiscal impact on our state budget are objectively false. It is impossible for the Governor to give billions of dollars in cash payments to a foreign corporation and not have that decision directly impact funding for our public schools, roads, and universities.”
In addition, the Walker Administration has already raided $134 million from statewide highway rehabilitation projects in order to fund local roads supporting the Foxconn project.
The Legislative Fiscal Bureau put out a memo on October 4, 2017 that concluded the earliest possible payback date for the Foxconn deal is 2043. Those calculations include all revenue in and out. Since that memo was released, Foxconn has changed the scope and scale of the facility in Mount Pleasant. After initially denying reports about the plant, we now know that Foxconn will be building a Generation 6 facility which does not require an organic supply chain and will create only 5,200 jobs instead of the 13,000 jobs the Walker Administration continues to promise.
Representative Hintz sent a letter to Secretary Nowak yesterday, asking for clarification on her comments.
