Here & Now

Racine Democrat Cautiously Optimistic On Foxconn Deal

Zac Schultz:

From Milwaukee over to Racine, that’s where we find Democratic State Representative Cory Mason for his take on the Foxconn proposal. Thanks for your time today.

Cory Mason:

Pleasure to be here. Thanks for having me.

Zac Schultz:

You weren’t on the committee but you did attend the hearing yesterday and testify. Did you get all of your questions answered about this bill?

Cory Mason:

I think there’s a lot of questions that are still out there. I mean first and foremost, it’s hard to overstate the economic impact this could have for southeast Wisconsin and Racine in particular. So I think people are very excited about what this could be. The bill’s going to determine what it will be. And so I think people have some questions that are still out there in regards to environmental protection, in regards to the wages. And you know, we heard a lot of talk about the number of engineers they want to hire and brain gain and how great that would be. But there are a lot of discussions then about if we’re going to invest a lot in Foxconn, that’s one thing, but we should be investing in our work force too. And giving our colleges and universities and technical colleges the resources they need so people in this area can actually take advantage of this great opportunity.

Zac Schultz:

Essentially the way these credits and incentives are going to work is Wisconsin will be subsidizing the wages for 15 years, up to 17% of wages. Do you think we need to insure there’s good wages being paid? For example, if there’s an engineer being hired, $20 an hour probably isn’t enough for them to pay off loans and raise a family.

Cory Mason:

Foxconn has said they believe the average wage will be around $53,000 a year plus benefits, which is a great marker to start at. They’ve also talked about starting salaries being $20 an hour. And that’s great but it would be nice to know if we are going to offer $3 billion in incentives to this company to come here and potentially start a real economic cluster, the wages have much stronger protections and people know taxpayers are going to put $3 billion in. It’s not too much to ask that the people working there would be paid a living wage.

Zac Schultz:

We’ve heard the site announcement is going to come in the next couple of weeks. Are you confident it will be in your area?

Cory Mason:

If they’re going to make the right decision, it will definitely be in Racine. That would definitely be the right decision. But regardless of where it is in southeast Wisconsin, there’s a lot of benefit for the region. So many jobs, so many opportunities that we need to be poised to take advantage of it. The other thing I will say about Racine and its work force, people here work hard. They want to do well. They’ve been longing for the lost manufacturing jobs of decades past. If you give them the skills and opportunity to do this work, they will proudly do it and succeed. So we’re really optimistic about it coming to Racine and being in our own backyard.

Zac Schultz:

Now besides being in the legislature, you’re also running for mayor of Racine. Does that change how you approach this bill?

Cory Mason:

No, I don’t think so. What I hear from my constituents over and over again is they want me to fight to make sure we have good middle class jobs for Wisconsin. That’s been true to the 11 years I’ve been in the legislature. I'm sure that’ll be true when I'm mayor. People also want to know you’re going to do everything you can to protect the natural resources. That Lake Michigan’s not being to be threatened. That we’re going to protect their water resources. That’s my job, whether that’s as mayor or as a state legislator is make sure that workers are protected and the environment is protected as well. We can do really both while taking advantage of the enormous historic opportunity.

Zac Schultz:

Now speaking of the environment, are you concerned about the lack of an environmental impact statement? That would tell us a lot about what we can expect from Foxconn.

Cory Mason:

Yeah, I think there’s a number of questions out there about why about the environmental exemptions were given and why exactly they would need that. And I think there’s some big questions that will be underway about the necessity of all the exemptions that were given. And certainly it is my hope — certainly at the hearing yesterday I brought this up, and the chairman of the committee who you interviewed previously, said he was opened to amendments around some of this language. It’s my hope we can have some good bipartisan consensus around tightening up that language to make sure our water is protected and still give Wisconsin this great economic opportunity with Foxconn.

Zac Schultz:

We’ve got just a few seconds left but I want to talk about the amount of water Foxconn will use. Estimates range from 10 to 15 million gallons a day, and not all of that can be treated and returned. Is that sustainable for your area?

Cory Mason:

So one of the great things the Great Lakes compact did is it basically insured that they’re weren’t going to be large scale diversions outside of the basin. But it also ensured if you wanted to do that kind of consumptive use, you need to come near Lake Michigan to be able do it. I would argue that compact language is part of the reason Foxconn is looking at the sites that it has because we have access to Great Lakes water within the basin. It’s been a real opportunity for us.

Zac Schultz:

Cory Mason from Racine, that’s all we have time for today. Thank you.

Cory Mason:

Thank you.