The Lie: Rebecca Kleefisch says Tony Evers “owns” the Foxconn deal.
The Lie: Rebecca Kleefisch says Tony Evers “owns” the Foxconn deal.
The Truth: Kleefisch played a key role in negotiating the disastrous Foxconn deal, which was signed by Scott Walker in 2017. [Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 11/10/17]
Kleefisch said she met with Foxconn officials during a 2015 trade mission to Taiwan and Japan and had a “great, general wide-ranging conversation” with Foxconn officials about what Wisconsin had to offer but did not “talk specifics.” [Associated Press, 6/19/17]
Kleefisch helped create the plan which offered massive tax breaks to bring Foxconn to Wisconsin, saying “We are being very aggressive in our plans to assure we are putting together the very best package and presentation.” [CBS 58, 6/20/17]
The Kleefisch-Walker administration’s Foxconn deal was the largest government incentive package offered to a foreign company ever. [PolitiFact, 10/26/21]
Three years after the Foxconn deal, the promised factory and thousands of jobs did not exist, but the state had still paid at least $400 million on the deal. [The Verge, 10/19/20]
A 2020 study found that the original Foxconn deal cost Wisconsin $20 billion in lost economic growth. [Reason, 1/9/20]
In 2021, Gov. Evers negotiated with Foxconn to lower the burden on taxpayers and reduce tax breaks for Foxconn while holding them to higher standards. [WPR, 4/19/21]