This sounds like a severe waste of his time.
Just some friendly advice from a Wisconsinite, you might want to walk that statement back a bit. Because that kind of attitude is how we ended up on the hook for $4 to $5 billion for Foxconn. (And that's for not even HALF the jobs that Amazon is talking about. All of them paying less than the Amazon jobs too.)
People have to start getting rational, and giving out benefits packages that actually make sense. "Give them all the breaks they want!!!", can lead to some really dark places.
On the other hand, misery loves company, so, yeah, I suppose if New Yorkers are that anxious, there's plenty of room down here to join us as the nation's corporate welfare laughing stock.
The Amazon deal only benefits Amazon if they put money in, AFAICT. The government isnt on the hook to build anything for them. They get tax breaks on property and income taxes.
And then there's the "nice to haves". Believe it or not there is a trolley car they're building in Milwaukee connected to all this. Those are the kinds of projects we should be waiting on until this whole thing is finished, and we're starting to collect on all that new tax revenue (profit) that everyone says we're gonna get. Then we should do that trolley car and all the other "nice to haves". Actually, we probably still shouldn't because we're not likely to be making much money on this deal at all, but if it's something people are just going to insist on then do it AFTER the money starts coming in.
I shouldn't complain, I suppose it's not like Wisconsinites are the only people out there who gleefully spend money before they get it. Worse, before they get it from someone who is CLEARLY doing this deal under duress. They don't even want to do the deal.
Arrgh. It's just the spending combined with the high likelihood that we're gonna be on the losing end of this deal just gets to you sometimes.
It's like Wisconsinites never heard of "risk mitigation"????
Anyway, I'll stop my rant.
We don't really have corporate taxes in Wisconsin per sé.
So this deal is structured as a series of payments to Foxconn of cold hard cash. In cartoonishly simplified terms - I pay my state taxes, and the state puts it in boxes of cash, and gives it to Foxconn at the rate of roughly $200,000 to $300,000 per job they create.
Good news is the factory isn't open, so payments haven't started. So, if we can get a little lucky, the whole thing will fall through and we can just eat the losses we've taken to date instead of staying at the table and putting the really big money into the pot.
For example, most of the NY state subsidy is from the Excelsior program, which is issued in the from of a tax credit for jobs that were created (in the past) and other types of investment. See https://esd.ny.gov/sites/default/files/Excelsior-Regs-2818.p... (PDF) for the details of the program:
> "Net new jobs" means jobs created in this state that: ([1]i) are new to the state,(ii) have not been transferred from employment with another business located in this state including from a related person in this state or through an acquisition, merger, consolidation, or other reorganization of businesses or the acquisition of assets of another business,(iii) are either full-time wage-paying jobs or equivalent to a full-time wage-paying job requiring at least thirty-five hours per week,and (iv) are filled for more than six months.[and in excess of both the applicant’s employment as of the date the applicant is admitted into the Excelsior Jobs Program and the applicant’s employment base calculated as the average of the applicant’s employment in New York State for each of the four quarters immediately prior to the date it was issued a certificate of eligibility, or, if the applicant was not in business in New York State during all four quarters, the employment base shall be calculated as the average of the applicant’s employment in New York State for each of those quarters immediately prior to the date it was issued a certificate of eligibility in which the applicant was in business in New York State;]
Deals seem pretty common
https://www.governor.ny.gov/news/governor-cuomo-and-mayor-de...
> To bring this transformational, multibillion-dollar project to New York, the State offered a package of performance-based incentives totaling $1.705 billion. The package includes a $1.2 billion in tax credits through the Excelsior Jobs Program, which is directly tied to Amazon's commitment to create 25,000 new jobs and no less than $2.3 billion investment over ten years as well as a $505 million capital grant that is directly tied to Amazon's commitment to invest $3.6 billion and create up to 40,000 new jobs over 15 years.
> Under pre-existing as-of-right programs authorized by law, Amazon is eligible for a partial property tax abatement through ICAP and an annual credit of $3,000 for twelve years per eligible employee under REAP, a program available to all companies to encourage job growth outside of Manhattan. REAP benefits for Amazon's 10-year expansion are projected at $897 million through 2038, and ICAP will abate approximately $386 million.
NY, home of NYC, struggles to attract 100 person businesses? How am I supposed to interpret that claim?
I imagine it's hard to get a 100 person business to move to Syracuse or Rochester nowadays.