MADISON — The leader of the state Senate said Wednesday that he does not yet have the votes to approve a $3 billion incentive package to lure Foxconn Technology Group of Taiwan to southeastern Wisconsin and raised concerns about elements of the deal.

"We should be cautious," Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald (R-Juneau) told reporters after privately meeting with Gov. Scott Walker for an hour.

"That's what we're doing right now, is the due diligence to make sure this is a good deal for the state and a good deal for locals — and ultimately creates this kind of high-tech campus that everyone's hoping for."

Fitzgerald made his comments as GOP leaders in the Assembly moved to hold a vote on the measure in their house next week. The bill is aimed at getting Foxconn to develop a $10 billion plant on 1,000 acres that would employ 3,000 initially and as many as 13,000 in the coming years.

Fitzgerald said he would need more time than the Assembly and questioned why Walker and Foxconn Chairman Terry Gou had set a Sept. 30 deadline for approving the deal. Fitzgerald said the Senate may toss aside any changes to the Foxconn legislation that the Assembly may make to it.

"It’s not something we’re working on together right now,” Fitzgerald said, referring to amendments being developed by Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R-Rochester). “It certainly creates a different process than you’re typically used to working on on a bill of this size.”

Fitzgerald said it was "striking" that a report issued this week by the Legislative Fiscal Bureau found that state taxpayers would not recoup their investment in Foxconn until 2043. The bureau described that timeline as the best-case scenario, with the Wisconsin plant fully operational and spawning job growth at suppliers and other companies that would come to the area.

"Is it going to be a good deal for taxpayers? A lot of that is going to be based on viability, on how this happens over the next 15, 25 years," Fitzgerald said. "And what is the payback going to be? And it's difficult to really measure that right now."

Under the incentive package, the state would pay Foxconn up to $2.85 billion in cash over the next 15 years and waive $150 million in sales taxes on construction materials. Over the first 15 years of the deal, state taxpayers would pay out $1 billion more to Foxconn than the additional taxes that would be generated by the deal, according to the fiscal bureau report, which was based in large part on a Foxconn-funded study.

For his part, Walker on Wednesday downplayed the report's findings and said Foxconn would transform the state's economy.

"To me, much as Reggie White transformed the Green Bay Packers, we’ll see the same here," Walker told Green Bay-area conservative radio host Jerry Bader.

State Rep. Adam Neylon (R-Pewaukee), chairman of the Assembly Committee on Jobs and the Economy, said that he is hoping to work eventually with Senate Republicans but is still trying to go through 40 to 50 amendments from Assembly lawmakers. Neylon said he was consulting with both local officials and representatives of Foxconn and considering changes to the bill in 14 major areas.

That includes funding to the bill to provide training programs around the state for workers at Foxconn and other potential suppliers.

“There has to be some level of funding if we want to do some sort of worker training program. Now what the negotiation and the discussions are is how targeted and specific do we make that?” Neylon said. “I think we’re leaning against making it so specific that it’s targeted to a specific company.”

Neylon said his committee was unlikely to require that workers at Foxconn be from Wisconsin "because they’re going to need engineers from around the country." But the panel might require that Foxconn give priority to Wisconsin vendors in certain areas such as construction, he said.

The committee was also unlikely to touch the $3 billion in state subsidies to Foxconn or exempt the company from having to file an environmental impact statement with the state for plant construction.

Other potential amendments included:

Revising language in the bill dealing with the filling in and replacement of wetlands.

Ensuring adequate oversight of the plant’s construction by the DNR.

Requiring minimum salaries at Foxconn to be $30,000 to qualify for tax credits in all circumstances.

Reviewing the state’s guarantee of up to 40% of local government borrowing to subsidize the Foxconn deal.

Spelling out how the Foxconn plant would be assessed for local property taxes if the plant is not used. That provision could have a sunset.

Require a certain level of federal matching dollars before the state could go through with the bill's additional $252 million of state borrowing to help finish the section of I-94 south of Milwaukee that would help serve the Foxconn plant.

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Neylon said he was working with Democrats such as Assembly Minority Leader Peter Barca of Kenosha and Rep. Cory Mason, who is running for mayor of Racine. The committee is expected to vote as soon as Thursday, setting up an Assembly vote two days later, on Aug. 17.

The Senate so far is moving more slowly. Fitzgerald wants to pass the stalled state budget before taking up the Foxconn legislation.

The new state budget was supposed to be in place by July 1 but has been delayed because Republicans cannot agree on transportation funding and tax cuts.

In an afternoon appearance on WISN-AM, Fitzgerald told conservative host Mark Belling he wouldn’t know whether he had the votes for the Foxconn package until he had talked to more of his colleagues. He said he had talked to Senate Minority Leader Jennifer Shilling (D-La Crosse) to try to secure some Democratic votes.

Senate Republicans are to discuss the measure further Thursday with Administration Secretary Scott Neitzel, who helped broker the deal with Foxconn.

Lillian Price of the Journal Sentinel staff contributed to this report from Madison.