<story><title>Wisconsin has negotiated a dramatically scaled-back deal with Foxconn</title><url>https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2021/04/wisconsin-drastically-scales-back-politically-charged-deal-with-foxconn/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>danhak</author><text>They’re not really “giving up” anything if they attract a business that otherwise wouldn’t be there at all.&lt;p&gt;It’s still a net gain to have a major employer in your locale, along with all the other economic benefits and tax revenue that entails.</text></item><item><author>altendo</author><text>I am always struck at the amount that states and municipalities are willing to write off in order to attract companies. On one hand, I understand that companies want to take the best deal, but on the other hand, at times local governments are willing to give up so much money in tax revenue. I remember reading about the competitions for Google Fiber and Amazon&amp;#x27;s second HQ - it felt absurd the amount cities and states were willing to drop, financially speaking.&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;m glad this one has been renegotiated (especially seeing that the proposed plant never happened), but I&amp;#x27;d like to see these deals be more level-headed before they get to this point.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>avs733</author><text>There should be research to support this argument. Has anyone found evidence for or against? Otherwise the claim here seems aspirational rather than useful.&lt;p&gt;I know that the history of stadium deals, for example, this claim is nearly universally made to support incentivizing sports teams - and the evidence nearly universally shows it to be false.&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;In every case, the conclusions are the same. A new sports facility has an extremely small (perhaps even negative) effect on overall economic activity and employment. No recent facility appears to have earned anything approaching a reasonable return on investment. No recent facility has been self-financing in terms of its impact on net tax revenues. Regardless of whether the unit of analysis is a local neighborhood, a city, or an entire metropolitan area, the economic benefits of sports facilities are de minimus.&amp;quot; [0]&lt;p&gt;[0] &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.brookings.edu&amp;#x2F;articles&amp;#x2F;sports-jobs-taxes-are-new-stadiums-worth-the-cost&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.brookings.edu&amp;#x2F;articles&amp;#x2F;sports-jobs-taxes-are-new...&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>
<story><title>Wisconsin has negotiated a dramatically scaled-back deal with Foxconn</title><url>https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2021/04/wisconsin-drastically-scales-back-politically-charged-deal-with-foxconn/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>danhak</author><text>They’re not really “giving up” anything if they attract a business that otherwise wouldn’t be there at all.&lt;p&gt;It’s still a net gain to have a major employer in your locale, along with all the other economic benefits and tax revenue that entails.</text></item><item><author>altendo</author><text>I am always struck at the amount that states and municipalities are willing to write off in order to attract companies. On one hand, I understand that companies want to take the best deal, but on the other hand, at times local governments are willing to give up so much money in tax revenue. I remember reading about the competitions for Google Fiber and Amazon&amp;#x27;s second HQ - it felt absurd the amount cities and states were willing to drop, financially speaking.&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;m glad this one has been renegotiated (especially seeing that the proposed plant never happened), but I&amp;#x27;d like to see these deals be more level-headed before they get to this point.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>34679</author><text>They&amp;#x27;re giving up fairness and equality- equal treatment under the law. If the entire state wasn&amp;#x27;t completely devoid of any entities looking to compete in that space, it probably is now. Anyone making LCD panels in Wisconsin suddenly has a $80,000,000 greater financial gap from their largest competitor. If the lower taxes are good for creating jobs at a net gain to the local economy, then the lower rate should be applied equally among all similarly taxed entities.</text></comment>