Can’t win the game? Change the rules

It is yet another example of if you can’t win the game, then change the rules. The latest example comes out of Madison, where Governor Scott Walker is hoping to provide corporate welfare to a company to keep them from closing. Kimberly Clark announced earlier this year that it would close its plant in Fox Crossing, putting 400 people out of work. The company didn’t request any help from the state, but on the heels of the Foxconn deal, some lawmakers think the state should throw money at Kimberly Clark to convince them to keep their Wisconsin plant open. But they don’t have the votes. The incentive package passed the legislature, but is stalled in the republican controlled senate. The legislature’s lame duck special session was initially to deal with Kimberly Clark, but it never even came up. So Walker has hatched a new plan, to do an end around of the legislature. Walker wants the state’s job creation agency, the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation, to negotiate the contract with Kimberly Clark, keeping lawmakers out of the loop. That is not the way it is supposed to work. Those we elect to office in Madison deserve to have a voice in whether the state should spend millions more of our tax dollars on this corporate welfare.