Wisconsin would spend $7 million to attract out of state workers for companies like Foxconn

MADISON - Wisconsin would spend nearly $7 million to draw workers to jobs at state businesses like Foxconn, under legislation from Gov. Scott Walker put before the Legislature's Joint Finance Committee.

Assembly Bill 811 is one of a series of proposals coming before the committee as lawmakers hustle to finish their work for the session. As of late Wednesday, the panel had yet to take up the bill.

With the unemployment rate at 3% in Wisconsin, Walker has said the state needs more workers to fill jobs, including at a display-screen plant that Foxconn Technology Group of Taiwan plans to build in Racine County.

The governor's $6.8 million marketing campaign would highlight the state's substantial benefits for veterans and target millennials by touting the state's lower cost of living.

RELATED: 'We need more bodies': Gov. Scott Walker wants $6.8 million for campaign to bring workers to Wisconsin for Foxconn and other firms

"It'll help bring a lot of people to Wisconsin and help build that workforce," Sen. Alberta Darling (R-River Hills) said of the bill.

The state and local governments in Racine County have committed some $4 billion toward the Foxconn plant, which is expected to cost up to $10 billion and employ up to 13,000 people. That's raised questions about how the new facility will find workers to staff it.

Republican lawmakers have generally voiced support for the governor's marketing plan while Democrats like Senate Minority Leader Jennifer Shilling of La Crosse have said the state needs different policies, not ads, to attract young.

“Millennials are increasingly choosing to live in states that invest in public transit, promote workplace flexibility and support student loan debt relief," Shilling said last year.

Dorothy Walker, interim dean of the technology and applied science division at Milwaukee Area Technical College, has said the state could provide more money to help develop and fund programs tailored toward helping unemployed Milwaukee residents get jobs at Foxconn.

"There has to be a way to create opportunities for people that live in the city of Milwaukee to access some of the opportunities that are available,” she said last year.

Gov. Walker has also said he wants to improve job training for workers already living here. The governor and lawmakers have approved $20 million for tech schools for Foxconn job training.

Under the governor's advertising proposal, $3.5 million would be spent on a campaign to bring veterans to Wisconsin. Another $3 million would be spent to promote Wisconsin to young professionals in Detroit, Minneapolis and other parts of the Midwest.

In addition, $300,000 would be put toward a mobile job center for events in rural areas and outside Wisconsin.

The ad campaign targeting millennials would build on a $1 million effort aimed at getting recent alumni from University of Wisconsin institutions living in the Chicago area to return to Wisconsin.

The budget panel also was scheduled to take testimony or votes on:

Senate Bill 690, which would provide $6.5 million more for schools in rural areas and an estimated $15.6 million more for districts with small budgets.

SB 668, which would provide another $3 million in tax credits next year for renovating historic buildings. When fully implemented in 2024, the proposal would decrease state revenues by $29.4 million a year.

SB 768, which would provide $3.9 million in state and federal money to fight drug addiction through additional money for state prosecutors, grants to local police and treatment programs.

SB 706, which would offer state income tax credits for low-income housing developments.

The nonpartisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau estimated the potential loss in state tax revenues under that proposal at up to $42 million a year when fully phased in. But the bureau also said that the bill's impact is hard to predict and could be much smaller.