Here & Now

Here & Now for Feb. 9, 2018

Announcer:

The following program is part of our “Here and Now” 2018 Wisconsin Vote election coverage.

Frederica Freyberg:

I'm Frederica Freyberg. Tonight on “Here and Now,” a first look at strategies to keep two Kimberly-Clark plants open in Wisconsin. After that, a closer look at state hospitals coping with unprecedented shortages of IV solution. Our partners at WisContext share a new report on special elections in Wisconsin. And capitol insight on a bill that could cut funds to state school public libraries. It’s “Here and Now” for February 9.

Announcer:

Funding for “Here and Now” is provided, in part, by Friends of Wisconsin Public Television.

Frederica Freyberg:

A first look tonight at response to the announcement that Kimberly-Clark will close two Wisconsin mills in the Neenah area, mills that employ more than 600 people. Kimberly-Clark makes many familiar items including disposable diapers and paper toweling and is currently based in Texas, but was founded in Wisconsin in 1872. Last month the company announced it would lay off more than 5,000 workers globally. Its corporate officials saying they would use proceeds from the federal tax cut to help pay for plant closings. In response to the announcement, Governor Scott Walker released a statement that reads in part, Retaining outstanding Wisconsin companies like Kimberly-Clark is just as important as attracting new companies to our state, which is why I'm proposing we offer larger tax credits to ensure the company keeps those 600 jobs where they belong, in Wisconsin. The governor says he wants to give Kimberly-Clark the same level of job retention tax credits as were offered Foxconn, 17% of company payroll. U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin responded saying, in part, This week Governor Scott Walker has proposed asking Wisconsin families to pay for taxpayer subsidies to Kimberly-Clark at a time when permanent corporate tax breaks are being used for a job layoff plan. The people I work for are asking how many tax breaks do you need? The news of the Kimberly-Clark layoffs comes as a blow to the mayor of Neenah, Dean Kaufert. He joins us know from Menasha. Mayor, thanks very much for doing so.

Dean Kaufert:

Thanks for having me.

Frederica Freyberg:

I know you’ve been in conversations with the governor’s office on this and wanted a meeting with the company as well. What can you tell us tonight about whether Kimberly-Clark could in fact decide to keep those Wisconsin plants open?

Dean Kaufert:

Yeah. News like this is never good for any community. This is really kind of a punch in the gut for me personally as the mayor of the community, with so many friends and family. This is a tough one because this is the birthplace of Kimberly-Clark. I have — a few hours after the announcement I spoke with the governor personally. First the governor’s staff and then the governor called me. And we talked about, you know, finding a way, developing a plan, looking at a way that we can, you know — we got to stop the bleeding. We got to look at job retention in this state and we got to say, you know what, retaining jobs are just as important as bringing jobs in from other states and parts of the country because these are the backbone of your community.

Frederica Freyberg:

What do you know about the response from Kimberly-Clark itself as to whether or not those kinds of incentives would in fact keep those plants open?

Dean Kaufert:

Yeah. I believe that there’s a crack in the door. After talking to Kimberly-Clark executives, after talking to the governor, we believe that — for sure — if you read Kimberly-Clark's statement, it says in it — it says in it that one of the plants, the decision — the final decision has not been made until considerations and negotiations with the union labor. And so we believe this will help them in their decision. They’re still going to have those discussions with the labor people, but we think adding these tax incentives for job retention, tying the dollars to jobs is really important. As I read Senator Roth's bill, there’s a floor, I think it’s $18. So these are really good jobs. And so, you know, we understand and I understand that this is a slippery slope. But you know what? We’re going to have to look at the entire paper industry. A more comprehensive plan maybe when the legislature comes back. But for right now I think it’s really important to stop the bleeding. You got 600 good-paying, family-supporting, skilled workers, trained people who are making a product that is used worldwide and we need to do what we can as Wisconsinites to help this particular industry. And you know what? If we tie them to job retention, the offset, the money that they’re going to be spending in the community, the capital that they’re going to put into homes and buying power is hopefully going to come back to the state more than twofold. And the one thing that I'm worried about and I told the governor, it’s not just the 600 jobs. It’s the supply chain. Think about all the companies that supply Kimberly-Clark and other companies that have shut down. They’re impacted just as much.

Frederica Freyberg:

But if the closings were a business decision based on sales, which the company says are challenging, in part because fewer babies are being born to wear their Huggies, would Wisconsin tax incentives make up for that?

Dean Kaufert:

Well, I think it will. And it’s just competition and global competition, foreign competition. You can go on amazon.com now and buy diapers cheaper. You can go to Costco and things like that. Kimberly-Clark, maybe this little bit of help will help them diversify their company also and look into other areas that aren’t reflective of the market right now as a downsizing of the market. So I think it’s important. Clearly Kimberly-Clark is stable. It’s a good company. They need to make a profit for their shareholders. They need to show a profit. And I think they need to retool themselves a little bit and become a more diversified company and having these skilled workers will allow them to do that.

Frederica Freyberg:

Did this announcement from Kimberly-Clark come as a surprise to you or the state?

Dean Kaufert:

That's a good question. I think it really came as a surprise to me. When the initial announcement of 5,000 jobs, I didn’t think that there was any way that the — what’s referred to as the Coldspring facility, it’s just outside of the boundaries of Neenah, but most of the people live in Neenah. That facility was built in I believe 1998. It’s had upgrades of $19 million. It’s a modern, state-of-the-art technology. The other plant is in the city limits. That facility is home to about 110 employees, who they’ve known for some time unfortunately that their product that they made was struggling and that they were looking at a possible downsizing. But the Coldspring Road, there is just — it befuddles me a little bit on why a facility that’s such state-of-the-art technology, has a workforce that can — you know, is second to none is being considered for a shutdown.

Frederica Freyberg:

All right. We need to leave it there, but obviously we will be following this. Mayor Dean Kaufert, thanks very much.

Dean Kaufert:

Thank you for having me. Appreciate it.

Frederica Freyberg:

The paper industry, an industry synonymous with the Fox Valley, has been in decline for decades, losing 20,000 jobs since 2001.

Now this news from UW-Madison. Chancellor Rebecca Blank has announced that in-state students from families with incomes under $56,000 will be offered free tuition and fees. More than 800 students in each incoming freshman class and transfers will be covered. The cost will be $3.3 million covered by university funds and private donors.

Now to the state capitol and new legislation that would change how school libraries get their funding. Some school librarians are sounding the alarm over the potential loss of state dollars, while authors of the bill say it will give school districts more spending flexibility and local control. Multimedia journalist Marisa Wojcik takes a look at proposed legislation that would change funding from a pot of money dedicated to school libraries to allowing the money to be used where a district may need it most.

Librarian:

These are the books we have here right now.

Marisa Wojcik:

A pair of bills introduced in the state legislature last month would change the way state public school libraries have been funded for 170 years. Under current state law, dollars from what’s known as the Common School Fund are generated by income from state trust funds, money that goes specifically to Wisconsin school libraries. The only source of state aid they receive. The funds are managed by the Board of Commissioners of Public Lands or BCPL.

Duey Stroebel:

Right now BCPL is to generate money for the schools and specifically for the libraries in the schools. And now what we are looking at doing is — that was a mandate from the state. It’s been there a long time. What we’re looking at is let’s allow local officials the ability to decide how best to spend that money.

Marisa Wojcik:

How much money is it? In 2017, more than $32 million were distributed to Wisconsin school libraries based on their number of students. School librarians strategize how to use the funds. Wausau East High School’s Paula Hase used the Common School Fund money to pay for iPads to use digital drawing software or for Smart Music, an archive of digital music scores. For some Wisconsin librarians, the proposed changes take away the guarantee of funds that used to be supplemental but are now fundamental. In response to Senator Stroebel’s assertion that districts would still fund libraries, Madison librarian Mandy Meloy said it’s still not a guarantee.

Mandy Meloy:

I would like to just advocate too that this is a statewide Common School Fund, so even if my school board put these funds into the library, that leaves it wide open that other school boards may not. So this is a state fund that protects all state public school libraries K-12 in the state of Wisconsin.

Marisa Wojcik:

For some districts, the changes aren’t so alarming. At the Elmbrook School District located in suburbs west of Milwaukee, they are confident literacy will remain a priority districtwide.

Chris Thompson:

I think having the flexibility to spend the Common School Fund dollars on resources we prioritize through a planning process and again, under the leadership of our district library coordinator, you know, I think we’re very comfortable operating as we always have, even with the changes that are proposed in the bill.

Marisa Wojcik:

While there’s disagreement over how libraries are funded, many recognize maintaining funding for school libraries is important.

Kay Benning:

The state of Wisconsin, we have — because of the Common School Funds, we’ve been in a situation we have some of the best school libraries in the world. And a lot of it has to do with this steady funding source that we have.

Marisa Wojcik:

With increased flexibility in how the Common School Funds can be used, school districts under tighter budgets could choose to take the money out of the libraries and put it into other areas deemed more urgent. Long-term, librarians want to protect the integrity of the information they’re providing to students.

Dan Paese:

If we were to pull back the resources our students are accessing through let’s say our library home page and the electronic resources we have, they will not have access to those from the public library and they will not be able to get that from surfing — doing a Google search or surfing the web.

Marisa Wojcik:

For Lodi librarian Paula Tonn, access to key. Tonn says libraries are supposed to be the great democratic equalizers.

Chris Thompson:

The school library is changing. It is no longer just a place in a building. It’s anywhere, in the building and at home. And so we’ve spent many, many years trying to integrate the library with the students’ daily experience, both in school and out of school.

Frederica Freyberg:

That was Marisa Wojcik reporting. The legislation would also seek to invest school trust fund dollars less conservatively as well as eliminate a state loan program for local governments and school districts.

Governor Scott Walker has declined to call a special election in two districts whose legislators left office late last year for jobs in the governor’s administration. Voters in Senate District 1 and Assembly District 42 will have to wait until November of this year to fill the seats. Whoever wins won’t be sworn in until January, more than a year after the two Republicans departed. In tonight’s WisContext, reporting that looks back over nearly 50 years of 105 special elections in Wisconsin, finds Scott Walker’s decision is unprecedented. Reporter Scott Gordon is here. Thanks a lot for being here.

Scott Gordon:

Thank you for having me.

Frederica Freyberg:

So in your reporting you say it’s normal for governors to call special elections swiftly. And Governor Scott Walker is challenging that norm. But Scott, it really seems like he’s not just challenging it. He has set a new record in this regard. Describe how.

Scott Gordon:

Well, that’s what it seems like based on all the data that we could pull together on when legislative seats have been vacated before the natural end of a term and when governors have decided to call an election or not to fill it. Typically speaking, going back to the early 1970s, people have acted pretty quickly about this. Obviously the governor has some discretion over that under state law, but generally they’ve done this really fast, you know, within a few weeks, sometimes calling it, you know, the day on or before a legislator’s resignation becomes effective if they’ve had advance notice of that. So leaving a legislative seat open for effectively more than a year, we couldn’t find an example of that. And we also asked the governor’s office if they knew of a precedent of that and they declined to offer one.

Frederica Freyberg:

What did the governor’s office say was the rationale for not calling these two special elections in a more timely fashion?

Scott Gordon:

Well, they’ve got a few talking points that we’ve stuck to pretty consistently throughout this story as it’s played out in different outlets. One is that technically they believe the state statute governing special elections allows them to do that and that’s highly dependent on how you interpret the wording of the statute. They also argue that they can’t justify spending public funds on having special elections. And they’ve also pointed out that the legislative staff will still be working in those districts.

Frederica Freyberg:

One thing that brings to mind is how expensive is it to do a special election?

Scott Gordon:

Well, the thing is we couldn’t find a really good, solid figure on that because according to the Wisconsin Elections Commission, it turns into a very apples and oranges thing depending on the turnout and circumstances of an election. We were basically told certainly it cost a few thousand dollars, but it’s going to depend on where that is and the state doesn’t always gather that data really thoroughly as it turns out.

Frederica Freyberg:

So that’s what the governor’s office tells you. What are other people saying about why the governor might not have called for these special elections?

Scott Gordon:

Well, there’s obviously a lot of speculation about are the Republicans worried about a Democrat coming in and flipping either of these seats, which is what happened with the state Senate District 10 just earlier this month. And so there’s — yeah. There’s the concern that it’s based more on partisan politics than anything else.

Frederica Freyberg:

And yet that Senate election in District 10 happened after this, right? Happened after his decision to allow this to go until the November 6 election.

Scott Gordon:

Right. They had staked out their position on this before that election happened. But obviously in other states there’d already been signs that it’s a political climate where these kinds of upsets can happen.

Frederica Freyberg:

Like out of Virginia.

Scott Gordon:

Sure. So it would have been in mind, if not the motivating factor. Can’t tell. But, you know, certainly in the atmosphere there.

Frederica Freyberg:

In your historical look back, you did find there were three other examples I think where seats were held vacant in the 200-day range. Did you find a political component to those?

Scott Gordon:

I wasn’t really sure. Some of them seemed like instances where the legislative season would have been wrapping up by the time they were able to get a new person in office. And that’s another justification that’s been offered in this case as well. Most of the actual voting and stuff will be over for the year before you could legally elect and seat new people in these districts no matter how you did it. But we didn’t really get a chance to delve too much into what the motivations would have been for those particular cases. But those were outliers, and the vacancy that we’re going to have now in these two seats is an outlier to those.

Frederica Freyberg:

Right. In Senate Districts 1 and Assembly District 42, they’re vacant until January of 2019. Who’s representing the voters’ interest in those districts, in those capitol offices?

Scott Gordon:

Well for the governor’s office and people who favor leaving those seats open for the time being, the line is that legislative staff are taking care of that. Of course, legislative staff are often very capable, but it’s not the same as having an actual elected representative.

Frederica Freyberg:

All right. And you have a little companion reporting on this, kind of a behind-the-scenes of how you gathered all this information.

Scott Gordon:

That's correct.

Frederica Freyberg:

And people can look for that at WisContext.org. Look for Scott's complete report and that companion reporting at WisContext.org.

Now for a closer look at a Wisconsin story that has its roots in Puerto Rico. Specifically, the damage done in Puerto Rico in the wake of Hurricane Maria last fall. That’s when major manufacturers of IV bags were destroyed, halting the export of those medical supplies from Puerto Rico to the U.S. and the world. Supplies are still limited. State hospitals are taking steps to conserve IV solution. The Wisconsin Hospital Association reports that some health care facilities are now rationing IV solutions bags. Ann Zenk is an RN and the association's vice-president of workforce and clinical practice. Thanks for being here.

Ann Zenk:

Thanks for having me.

Frederica Freyberg:

This hurricane happened in September and there have been shortages ever since then, presumably getting worse by the day. What is it like right now?

Ann Zenk:

Right now hospitals are continuing to be able to cope in Wisconsin without it impacting directly on patient care. But that means they’re having to make a lot of conservation efforts.

Frederica Freyberg:

And so it’s described as conservation efforts and rationing. We kind of take it for granted that hospitals are going to have all of the medical supplies that are needed. But have hospitals ever seen anything like this?

Ann Zenk:

We've seen medication and IV fluid shortages in the past. I think the difference in this shortage is it’s been of such long duration.

Frederica Freyberg:

Has the flu season made things worse?

Ann Zenk:

It has the potential to. It hasn’t seemed to have impacted it yet. But just like this duration has been — this shortage has been going on for a long duration, if flu season is extended, that could also impact it.

Frederica Freyberg:

The conserving. What are hospitals doing as alternatives to IV solutions?

Ann Zenk:

The original shortage started with IV mini bags, those little bags you see hanging from the IV pole that we put the medication in. Hospitals aren’t using those. They’re using syringes instead or they’re using bigger bags.

Frederica Freyberg:

And so what is that like for both the providers and the patients?

Ann Zenk:

Sure. So for the providers, it’s much more labor-intensive. Instead of hanging a bag and then going to check on other patients, perhaps a nurse has to remain by the bedside. For patients then they would experience it as staff being at their bedside for longer periods. Maybe if you’re a cancer patient who’s getting continued care, instead of the nurse coming in and hanging the bag, you may have questions about why are you doing with a syringe instead?

Frederica Freyberg:

It's got to be very difficult in busy hospital care centers where the nurses and staff are really having to spend so much more time. What’s that like on the floor?

Ann Zenk:

Yeah. On the floor what we’ve experienced is that, you know, nurse managers maybe have to schedule differently, schedule more nurses on a shift. In our pharmacies, the pharmacy technicians and the pharmacist may have to work longer hours, use different supplies. It’s really been labor-intensive and supply-intensive.

Frederica Freyberg:

Has it gotten to the point where people have to reschedule procedures or go to different hospitals or facilities?

Ann Zenk:

No. I think our hospitals have done a great job of the conservation efforts preventing that from happening.

Frederica Freyberg:

Yet what are they saying?

Ann Zenk:

The hospitals?

Frederica Freyberg:

Yeah.

Ann Zenk:

What they're saying is boy, we sure hope this is over soon. The conservation strategies — and that’s part of the reason that we did do this survey. We wanted to make sure that our health care professionals are being able to cope with those shortages without having to delay treatment or reschedule care. And so far we’ve been able to cope.

Frederica Freyberg:

Meanwhile, what can be done about this?

Ann Zenk:

Right. Right. At a local level, at the bedside level, we are going to continue those conservation strategies to make sure patients get the care they need with the supplies they need. Kind of at the next level up, we’re going to continue doing what we always do in Wisconsin, and that’s help our neighbors. So hospitals share supplies between themselves to make sure that lasts.

Frederica Freyberg:

What about the Food and Drug Administration at the federal level? Are they doing enough, in your mind?

Ann Zenk:

Right. The FDA controls the IV supplies and who can manufacture them. And we are seeing kind of the end in sight because the FDA has approved additional manufacturers outside of Puerto Rico and now those manufacturers either as we speak or very soon are going to start shipping those supplies.

Frederica Freyberg:

Couldn’t come soon enough, I'm assuming. So what happens if the shortage gets worse?

Ann Zenk:

As the shortage gets worse, I think that we’re going to see hospitals continue to be creative. Hospitals and health care professionals continue to be creative about the mitigation strategies that they use. I think that in that case, you know, we may urge additional actions by the FDA to not just solve this current shortage, but also we need to stabilize this for the future and make sure that we have, you know, in the great health care that we have in Wisconsin, that we also have ready supplies in a reliable fashion.

Frederica Freyberg:

Absolutely. All right. Ann Zenk, thanks very much.

Ann Zenk:

Thank you for having me.

Frederica Freyberg:

This follow-up now on landowners in Racine County and reporting we did last summer about their options to sell to Foxconn.

Tom Fliess:

They did approach, asked if I would be interested in selling.

Frederica Freyberg:

This was farmer Tom Fliess in July talking about being asked to sell. This week it’s reported Fliess did sell 380 acres in Mount Pleasant to Foxconn. Price tag? $18 million. His son also sold 147 acres to Foxconn for $7 million. The company was offering $50,000 an acre, way over the former market value.

Also this week, Foxconn announced it had purchased an office building in downtown Milwaukee from Northwest Mutual. Foxconn says it will serve as its corporate headquarters in Wisconsin.

Now to a different economic story. According to the U.S. Geologic Survey production of domestic frac sand has increased by more than 36% in the past year and for the second year in a row, Wisconsin leads the nation in production of the sand used in hydraulic drilling for oil. In 2017, Wisconsin produced $1.5 billion worth of minerals, most of which was industrial sand. Wisconsin is looking over its shoulder as a frac sand boom is now taking shape in west Texas.

Finally tonight, a look ahead to next week, when we will bring you highlights from the State of the Tribes Address. I’m Frederica Freyberg. Have a great weekend.

Announcer:

Funding for “Here and Now” is provided, in part, by Friends of Wisconsin Public Television.

For more information on “Here and Now’s” 2018 election coverage, go to WisconsinVote.org.