Our Own Little Foxconn

The Greater Oshkosh Economic Development Corporation and the Oshkosh Chamber of Commerce might want to order more of those "We Support the Oshkosh Corporation" yard signs--because if the company does accept the City's offer to sell the Lakeshore Golf Course as proposed, all of us will literally be supporting the Oshkosh Corporation. 

The first six million dollars Oshkosh Corp pays in property taxes on the new HQ will be returned to them as part of a "Pay as you go" tax incremental financing district.  That's about 20-years worth of returns.  In addition, the City will have to borrow 7.2-million to build the streets leading to the new headquarters--along with the water and sewer lines.  That is another twenty year payback.

I'm not saying that Oshkosh Corporation is ripping off taxpayers or that the City is giving away the farm (which I still believe will happen when Oshkosh counter-offers to pay far less than the 3.5-million dollar asking price the City has put on the Lakeshore property itself).  This is the way business relocation is conducted now: What city is going to give us the most for the least amount of cost to us?

One of the huge disadvantages the City of Oshkosh has in this process is that everything has to be done in the open.  Because this is public land being offered by a government entity, the "Lakeshore offer" is public record.  The rumored "Grand Chute offer" is for land that is privately held--and therefore no Town Board approval is needed yet (although those folks will be getting multiple calls about that today).  The same goes for the offers from the Chicago area and suburban Washington DC.  Who is to say those developers won't be checking out the on-line news sources this morning and "sweetening their deal" to beat Lakeshore?

And one thing that I do not want to hear is anyone in local or state government that supports the Oshkosh Corporation deal voicing any opposition or concern about the Foxconn deal.  If the State is engaged in "corporate welfare", then the City is engaging in "corporate welfare" too.  About the only difference is we know that the Oshkosh Corporation actually will build what it promises to build--and that we don't need to change a bunch of legal processes to make it happen.

In both cases, we the taxpayers just have to hope those companies stick around long enough to make these big investments worthwhile.