Foxconn in Wisconsin: State taxpayers bear cost of big incentives

President Trump will visit the site of Apple supplier Foxconn’s new plant in Wisconsin on Thursday, where taxpayers could be on the hook for a part of the hefty financial incentives package the state put together to win the bid for the facility.

In addition to the $3 billion incentives package put together by lawmakers, the state added in some extra spending – $764 million in local government incentives and $134 million to fix public infrastructure.

Overall, the costs currently exceed $4 billion.

Taxpayers will be on the hook for 40% of the public bonds that finance the package if it falls through, according to The Wall Street Journal.

There are concerns Foxconn may not fulfill its end of the bargain, after it promised in 2013 to build a $30 million factory in Pennsylvania that never materialized.

The president will be in Wisconsin on Thursday for a breaking ground ceremony at the plant site, nearly a year after the company announced plans to build the facility in the state.

In exchange for the $3 billion worth of incentives, Foxconn said it will build liquid crystal display panels at the 20-million-square-foot manufacturing site, eventually employing 13,000 people.

The amount of time it would take for taxpayers to see return on the Foxconn investment is about 25 years, according to an independent state analysis, as reported by The Journal.