Senator: Wisconsin mill bill lacks votes

MADISON, Wis. — A Republican co-chairman of the Wisconsin Legislature’s budget committee said Monday that there are not enough votes in the Senate to pass a $109 million tax-break bill designed to keep open a pair of KimberlyClark Corp. plants in northeast Wisconsin, saving more than 600 jobs.

Kimberly-Clark, which makes Kleenex tissue, Huggies diapers and other paper products, said earlier this year that it planned to shutter the plants, but hopes of saving them were rekindled last month after the union representing workers there agreed to concessions.

The Arkansas Economic Development Commission is planning an incentive package to keep a Kimberly-Clark mill in Conway open. In July, Kimberly-Clark told its 350 employees in Conway that it is considering closing the plant. The plant is a sister plant of one of the Wisconsin facilities.

Arkansas’ incentive package depends on how things shake out in Wisconsin, the commission said. The state will submit an incentive package to Kimberly-Clark, Preston said, but he declined to provide details of the offer.

Wisconsin Republican state Sen. Alberta Darling said during a legislative forum Monday that “right now we probably don’t” have the votes to pass the bill. Darling, co-chairman of the budget committee, said if the bill were up now, “I don’t think there would be the votes but I’m not saying there won’t be.”