http://newiprogressive.com/images/stories/S5/kc-neenah-s5.jpgLack of Leadership from Roth Makes Senate Vote Unlikely

APPLETON, WI - After months of public grandstanding and campaign-year promises, Senate President Roger Roth (R-Appleton) appears unable to secure the Republican support needed to pass a series of new tax breaks for Kimberly-Clark. Roth, who previously cancelled a scheduled vote on his own bill, has shown little leadership in convincing his own Republican colleagues to support Kimberly-Clark and provide the same incentives for a Wisconsin company as they offered to Foxconn, who received the largest taxpayer handout to a foreign corporation in American history.

“The workers whose jobs are on the line deserve a Senator that will fight to protect local jobs rather than worry over their own political career,” said Courtney Beyer, Democratic Party of Wisconsin spokesperson. “Families are tired of Senator Roth’s excuses. The fact that he couldn’t even get one of his own Republican colleagues to read a twelve page proposal is proof that Senator Roth has completely failed the workers at Kimberly-Clark. This whole debacle begs the question: What has Senator Roth been doing for the last year other than campaigning to save his own job?”

While Roth voted to send billions of state taxpayer dollars to Foxconn, he has been unable to convince his fellow Republican colleagues to support hundreds of workers at Kimberly-Clark, a company with deep roots in the Fox Valley. At least three Republican Senators (Sens. Craig, Kapenga, & Nass) have publicly opposed a tax incentive package for Kimberly-Clark while Roth remains the only Republican who has gone on record in recent months saying he supports the bill.

Despite claims by Sen. Roth that he has been having “productive” conversations with his fellow caucus members, one of Roth’s own colleagues who serves as the Senate Republican Caucus Chair admitted that he hasn’t even bothered to read the twelve page Kimberly-Clark bill.