New records show the high stakes contest for Foxconn Technology Group’s first North American manufacturing facility came down to a battle between Wisconsin and neighboring Michigan.
Records released by Gov. Scott Walker’s office shows the Taiwanese company also toured sites in Ohio before Wisconsin won out, thanks to a $3 billion state incentives package.
Jim Paetsch, vice president of the Milwaukee 7 economic development group, says in a briefing for a May meeting with Foxconn that Wisconsin and Michigan were finalists for the project.
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Walker on Thursday released more than 13,000 pages of emails and other documents to news outlets as requested under Wisconsin’s open records law.
One email from Wisconsin’s chief economic development officer sent in May is a briefing document for an upcoming meeting with Foxconn leaders.
Mark Hogan says in the email that Foxconn toured locations in Ohio near Cincinnati, Cleveland and Columbus. In Michigan, Hogan says they looked at Detroit, Flint and Battle Creek.
More than a dozen communities across the state initially expressed interest in the plant that could employ up to 13,000 people and could result in a $10 billion investment and creation of 13,000 jobs.
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