Site Selection Magazine Names Gov. Scott Walker’s Recruitment of Foxconn To Wisconsin As A “Top Deal” of 2017

May 9, 2018

GOP Governor Scott Walker continues to receive praise for his successful recruitment of Foxconn to Wisconsin in a groundbreaking development project that will create thousands of jobs and expand economic opportunity across the state. Site Selection Magazine recently named Foxconn’s investment in Wisconsin one of the “top deals of 2017,” citing Governor Walker’s instrumental involvement in bringing them to the Badger State. As Governor Walker works tirelessly to improve Wisconsin’s business climate and drive job creation, working families throughout the state are reaping the rewards.

Site Selection Magazine writes:

“Site Selection EVP Ron Starner called his exclusive story about this deal ‘Bagging the Big One,’ and there’s no denying Wisconsin did just that, landing the largest capital investment in state history in a 20-million-sq.-ft. (1.8-million-sq.-m.) advanced electronics manufacturing complex for 8K liquid crystal display TV screens from Taiwan’s $136-billion Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. Ltd. (Foxconn).

As Starner put it, the big Wisconsin win was the story of a bunch of other ‘Ws’: Gov. Scott Walker, involvement from the White House in Washington; the Wisconsin Economic Development Corp.; water; workforce; the Wisconsin Energy Corp.; and the Wisconsin education system. Among the facts Starner discovered: The site search in the US began on April 28 and lasted only four months. Wisconsin was neither the high bidder nor the low bidder. And the presence of the world’s largest supply of freshwater in the Great Lakes immediately elevated Upper Midwest locations to the top of the project short list.

‘The overriding factor — the one that separated us from our competition — was the fact that we were ready,’ Gov. Walker told Site Selection. ‘We changed our business climate. We cut our tax burden. We wiped out almost all the tax liability for a manufacturing project like Foxconn’s. We became a right-to-work state. We adopted regulatory reform. Some states were just not ready. I had been working on this six years ago.’”