Republicans Pass Massive Corporate Giveaway To Foxconn Says Larson Print
Commentary
Written by Chris Larson, State Senator, District 7   
Wednesday, 13 September 2017 11:14

walker-ryan-gou-foxconnDeal Fails to Protect Wisconsin Taxpayers, workers victims of a Foxconn automation ‘bait and switch.’.


MADISON - Our Wisconsin economy must be built on rewarding hard work and innovation by creating more opportunities for our small businesses, innovators, communities, and children to reach their full potential. Choosing a foreign corporation over our Main Street businesses is a dangerous and desperate gamble.

From listening to my neighbors, it is abundantly clear that this proposal is a bad deal for Wisconsin.

chris-larsonThat’s why my Democratic colleagues and I offered common sense protections for our neighbors through amendments that would maintain environmental safeguards and ensure the health and safety of our waters and lands. We also offered an amendment that would have protected Wisconsin workers from being victims of a Foxconn automation ‘bait and switch.’

Perhaps the most common sense amendment offered to allow our Wisconsin communities a real opportunity to weigh-in on their priorities for our state. In every corner of Wisconsin, local communities have passed referenda to invest more in our neighborhood schools as the GOP turned their backs on our kids time and again. If we are going to pick a billion dollar corporate giveaway over our schools, we should allow the taxpayers a chance to sign off via a referendum.

At the end of the day, Senate Republicans rejected our common sense protections and were not able to guarantee that our neighbors would not be on the hook for the $3 billion handout included in the Walker/Trump/Foxconn proposal. For these reasons, I stood with Wisconsin families and voted against the largest state taxpayer giveaway to a foreign corporation in U.S. history.

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Senator Larson released this statement Tuesday regarding the passage of the Walker/Trump/Foxconn proposal in the State Senate.