> If the factory never would have been built in the first place, the taxes never would have been paid.
That does not make the incentives any difference than a cash payment in exchange for building the factory.
> The incentives would cost the state about $200 million a year but Foxconn's payroll in Wisconsin could reach $700 million a year, Walker's office said
The relationship between “would” and “could” in that sentence is quite important.
> That does not make the incentives any difference than a cash payment in exchange for building the factory.
Sure it does. A state writing a check for, say $100 million dollars requires spending $100 million dollars (possibly borrowing it to do so). Giving $100 million dollars in tax reductions requires spending $0. The former may not be feasible, while the latter generally is, so the two are not equivalent.
Giving $100 million in tax incentives, conditioned on a specific act, requires just as much spending (or more, if the income from the cash payment itself would have been taxable) as giving a $100 million cash payment, with the same conditions, with no special tax treatment.
That people can fail to see this may explain why these deals are politically popular, though.
That does not make the incentives any difference than a cash payment in exchange for building the factory.
> The incentives would cost the state about $200 million a year but Foxconn's payroll in Wisconsin could reach $700 million a year, Walker's office said
The relationship between “would” and “could” in that sentence is quite important.