UNDATED (WKZO AM/FM) — There was a lot of talk about the Governor’s Good Jobs tax incentive package being motivated by the search by a Taiwanese company in the Midwest for a plant site to make smartphone screens.
Most of the talk was about the plant locating somewhere in the Detroit area. Congressman Fred Upton has put a pitch in for southwest Michigan.
In a letter to Terry Gou, the founder and Chair of Foxconn Technology, he says “This region has all of the key components for your investment to prosper: a solid manufacturing sector, a steadfast workforce, and robust economic development organizations.”
Foxconn is looking for a 400 to 1,000 acre parcel. There have been different reports of exactly what they intend to build. Reports range from 500 to 10,000 jobs, with an estimated construction cost of anything from $30-million to $3-billion.
Other reports say that in order to compete with the $2.50/hour they pay at their plants in the Far East, the U.S. Facility will be highly automated in order to keep the number of employees as low as possible.
A fierce competition is underway between Michigan and Wisconsin for the facility, and as many as ten other states have bids in for the project.
