MacIver Institute Reminds Wisconsin Why Kimberly-Clark Bailout Is a Bad Idea

MacIver News Service | Nov. 14, 2018

MADISON – The Joint Committee on Finance today will consider an incentives package for paper products manufacturer Kimberly-Clark. In response, MacIver Institute President Brett Healy issued the following statement:

“The proposed ‘pay-to-stay’ incentives package is a bad idea and it’s poor public policy. It makes no sense to use taxpayer money to convince a company to retain workers when Wisconsin’s unemployment rate remains at an all-time low. While it’s never welcome news when a company announces layoffs, employers across the Badger State are in desperate need of skilled manufacturing workers.

“We were told the Foxconn package was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to recruit a new industry and a new business to Wisconsin.

“This incentives package would set the troubling precedent of using the Foxconn template for what amounts to a taxpayer bailout of a company struggling with long-term marketplace challenges. Wisconsin taxpayers cannot afford to give the once-in-a-lifetime Foxconn treatment to every business out there.

“This does not make fiscal common sense.”