LANSING – Michigan had offered Foxconn Technology Group some $3.76 billion in incentives for the plant it lost to Wisconsin and another $3.06 billion for a yet-to-be-announced plan, according to letters to the company.

But both of those incentives were reduced by the final language of the Good Jobs for Michigan package (SB 242SB 243 and SB 244), with that part of the proposal cut in half.

The lion’s share of both proposals, as outlined in a June 25 letter to company representatives obtained by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, was tax cuts, with $3.03 billion in tax incentives for the project that went to Wisconsin instead of a site proposed in Marshall. And the largest part of that, $1.78 billion, was a renaissance zone.

Another $1.22 billion was in the manufacturing personal property tax exemption, which was the result of the personal property tax reforms and not an incentive specific to the project.

In contrast, the Journal Sentinel said, Wisconsin’s $3 billion in incentives were more heavily weighted to cash payments.

The state is bidding on a second plant, with a proposed site in Romulus and a projected $4.2 billion investment and 5,200 jobs.

Of that proposal, $2.5 billion is in tax incentives, including a $1.07 billion renaissance zone and $1.07 billion from the personal property tax reform.

Of the $544.71 million in cash incentives, $425.82 million was from the Good Jobs package that would likely fall to about $200 million under the final plan.

Anna Heaton, spokesperson for Governor Rick Snyder, declined to comment on the proposals other than to say work was still underway to bring a Foxconn plant to the state.

“We are continuing ongoing, productive dialogues with Foxconn about their future in Michigan,” Heaton said.

As to the future of incentives: “The Good Jobs program wasn’t specifically aimed at Foxconn. We are still anticipating it will bring new, diverse industries to Michigan with thousands of new jobs for residents,” Heaton said.

She declined to answer whether there had been calculations to show that the plants would have brought enough development into the state to offset the proposed incentives, given the level of taxes forgiven on the plants.

Rep. Tom Barrett (R-Potterville), one of the opponents of the Good Jobs package, said he had not seen the comparison of the two incentive packages, but questioned the need to offer such incentives given reports he said Mr. Snyder touted on social media that Michigan was among the top locations in the country for new businesses.

“While they were saying, ‘We need this, we need this we need this,’ they were promoting a report that Michigan was the top location in the Midwest,” Barrett said.

Gongwer News Service Published This Story.