Here & Now

Kimberly-Clark to Keep Hundreds of Jobs in the State

Zac Schultz:
Earlier today Governor Scott Walker signed into law the three bills passed in a lame duck extraordinary session. Despite his comments this week that he was considering some partial vetoes, he signed all bills in full. Critics call the bills a power grab taking authority away from incoming Governor Tony Evers and giving it to the Republican-controlled legislature but Walker defended the moves as increasing accountability and protecting the taxpayers. Democratic groups have already threatened lawsuits and Tony Evers said today he is exploring his options. The bill signing comes just one day after Governor Walker used some of the powers he’s taking away from future governors to strike a deal between the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation and the Kimberly-Clark company in order to keep open a paper manufacturing facility in Fox Crossing. The agreement provides up to $28 million in tax incentives. In return Kimberly-Clark will retain 388 jobs at their Cold Springs facility for five years. During the extraordinary session, Republicans in the State Senate failed to take up a bill that would have provided the company $100 million in tax credits to keep the jobs for 15 years. Joining us now to talk about the deal is Senate President Roger Roth. Thanks for your time today.

Roger Roth:
Glad to be here.

Zac Schultz:
Do you still wish the Senate would have passed the original proposal or is this deal better?

Roger Roth:
At the end of the day, the primary objective of both the governor and myself was to get a deal done to protect those jobs, protect that Wisconsin supply chain. So I’m just thrilled that we were able to do that here and quite honestly just very excited for the families and for everyone here in northeast Wisconsin that we were able to get that done.

Zac Schultz:
So the deal that gets done is the deal that’s best?

Roger Roth:
Yeah, well, you know, politics is a process. When we first introduced that bill the company was almost 11 months ago now, they made that announcement January 31st. The governor and I were very decisive coming out immediately with a bill that we thought would help keep that company open. And through that conversation it was great. We went from a company saying they’re leaving to they’re considering. And then of course you know there were many evolutions in that process over the course of the spring, the fall, to where we’re at right now. It took all of that, I believe, to keep that conversation open to move all parties in the right direction to get the deal that we were able to get.

Zac Schultz:
Do you think the possibility of a deal through the WEDC made it easier for some Republicans in the Senate to say no to your bill?

Roger Roth:
I guess I don’t know. This was kind of a late breaking development here. We had looked at all things, of course, from the beginning. But it didn’t become apparent until later in this process. How much the company was looking to reinvest into this facility, which opened up other avenues through statutory authority that WEDC already has to put together the deal that was signed by the governor or signed by his folks and revealed yesterday. So it really took all of that and that process to just figure out really the best way to come about it. That’s why, again, it wasn’t exactly the road we started down but the destination is the same and we’re very excited about that.

Zac Schultz:
Due to the manufacturing and agriculture tax credit, Kimberly-Clark already pays almost no corporate income taxes in Wisconsin and now we’re giving them these extra tax credit to keep the jobs. What happens when the next paper mill in Wisconsin threatens to leave? Are they going to get the same deal?

Roger Roth:
Yeah, well, I can tell you just going through this process here that it’s not something that we do lightly. The contract that we put forward, that WEDC put forward is performance-based, meaning that the company has to prove that they are retaining those jobs and they have to prove that they’re making those investments in order to receive the tax credits. But the reason we do it is because this is an iconic business, an anchor business in an anchor industry. And it’s not just protecting one company that employs 400 people. This is protecting a supply chain of 237 other Wisconsin businesses where they purchase $57 million a year. So there are thousands of other jobs as you spread a — small businesses as you spread across the ecosystem that we’re able to protect with a bill that the governor signed — or with the deal that the governor signed rather.

Zac Schultz:
Yeah, and the governor and the WEDC were able to reach this deal without final input from the legislature — final approval — but one of the bills you just voted for in the lame duck session would strip that power from incoming Governor Tony Evers. Does that make sense that he wouldn’t have been able to do the same deal?

Roger Roth:
That’s actually not accurate and I think a lot of people have been mentioning that but it’s a little overblown. The state legislature empowered WEDC with 30 enterprise zones a number of years ago and they’re almost maxed out at that right now. Well, they had one left that we were able to use here for Kimberly-Clark. But what was passed a week and a half go said that instead of being capped at 30 which we currently would be now, that going forward in the future, we could create new enterprise zones if WEDC brought that before the Joint Finance Committee. So this is actually empowering future governors. They’re not going to be capped at 30. They’re going to have the power and the flexibility to exceed that. And the only thing they need to exceed that is to create that new enterprise zone is to go before the Joint Finance Committee.

Zac Schultz:
All right. Senator Roth, thank you for your time today and work on this legislation.

Roger Roth:
Appreciate it, thank you.