Company that begged for state money puts its name on Bucks new arena

More evidence that states shouldn’t be handing out taxpayer money to companies which probably don’t need it anyway. We’ve heard about the $4.5 billion in tax dollars being promised to Foxconn to build a massive plant that could employ 13,000 people. It will take in excess of 40 years for taxpayers to see any returns on that investment. Meanwhile, another company was also able to convince Governor Walker and state lawmakers that they may move out of Wisconsin if the state didn’t pony up. Lawmakers ultimately agreed to give $12.5 million to a company called Fiserv Inc. The company, which provides technology that runs banks and allows mobile payments of bills online, says it will build its new headquarters in Wisconsin, and agree to retain 93% of its jobs, if the state provides our money. So in reality, taxpayers are paying the company to lay off 7% of its workforce. But it turns out the company is hardly hurting. Fiserv did $5.7 billion in revenue last year, and made a profit of $1.2 billion. It seems if they wanted to build a new Wisconsin headquarters, they could afford to do so without our help. Especially with the news that Fiserv is spending millions of dollars to secure the naming rights for the Milwaukee Bucks new arena. It will be known as the Fiserv arena. Keep in mind, the arena was built using $250 million in taxpayer subsidies. So the reality is, Wisconsin taxpayers are paying to put someone else’s name on the arena that taxpayers already paid for. This is more evidence that Wisconsin shouldn’t be handing out our tax money to companies which cry poor while they laugh all the way to the bank.