Critics: Scott Walker's plan to sell heating plants will cost taxpayers

[hue]

http://host.madison.com/ct/news/local/writers/steven_elbow/critics-scott-walker-s-plan-to-sell-heating-plants-will/article_fb05f49c-7b90-11e2-8452-001a4bcf887a.html

Gov. Scott Walker’s plan to put the state’s 37 power plants up for sale to fund road projects might bring in hundreds of millions of dollars, but it would short-change taxpayers in the long run, critics of the plan say.

“The whole idea of selling has to do with short-term money gain because we sell the right to bleed the taxpayer in the future,” says Peter Carstensen, a professor at the UW Law School who specializes in utilities regulation.

Walker scrapped plans in his budget repair bill two years ago to sell off the plants after opposition emerged even from some Republicans over a provision that would have allowed the state to sell them on a no-bid basis, and with no oversight from the state Public Service Commission. According to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, the new plans would include a bidding process.

Walker has billed the sales as a way to pay down debt on road projects, the most costly of which is Milwaukee's Zoo Interchange reconstruction.
Walker's budget lays the groundwork for the sale of the plants, authorizing the state Department of Administration or the Building Commission "to sell or lease any state-owned real property unless prohibited by the state or federal constitution or federal law." The budget eliminates the requirement that certain sales of state-owned property be subject to approval from the legislative Joint Finance Committee.

*****************************************
Wanker really doesn't know what the F he's doing!!

[Scuba]

1. Wanker knows exactly what he's doing ...

... which is exactly what the Koch brothers tell him to do.

We really need Ed Fallone on the Supreme Court in Place of Roggensack.

[Jackpine Radical]

2. Fallone would be a good start.

I used to say it would take a generation to repair the damage Toxic Tommy did to this state. It'll take the rest of the century to repair Walker's destruction.

[kimbutgar]

3. And this jerk is going to be re-elected again in 2014 because of voter suppression laws in the state

I have no sympathy for the people of Wisconsin they had a chance to get rid of this guy and they blew it. Now they have to suffer the consequences of his getting a second term and him finishing off Wisconsin as a state people want to move to or start a business because it will become a third world nation under his administration. All the beauty of Wisconsin destroyed by a waste pool of pollution, fracked communities, contaminated lakes, scores of homeless people with infectious diseases, no social services a destroyed educational system and destruction of great universities. The rich people will live in their gated communities afraid to go out in public because they will be mugged .That is the dystopia dream world of republicans in this country, Wanker will fulfill his dream of a Ayn Rand dystopian state.

[mokawanis]

4. No sympathy?

Is that your message to the people who worked hard to stop Walker? They deserve it?

[kimbutgar]

5. I stood with the people in Wisconsin

I sent money to help in the recall but when they voted back in a republican house and senate they lost my sympathy.

[mokawanis]

6. Ok, but please don't blame the wrong people

Some of us put in a lot of work to get petitions signed and get out the vote. We did all we could, and we certainly don't deserve Walker.

[kimbutgar]

7. Point taken mokawanis.

I shred a tear the night he survived the recall. And I'm sure you shred a lot more. I'm sorry I forgot.

I hope the people of Wisconsin come to their senses and vote out this jackal, his minions and the Koch republican//organized crime syndicate.

[Lefta Dissenter]

8. The no-bid sale of the heating plants

It's one of the main reasons I went down to the first protests two years ago. Unions can be rebuilt. Our assets cannot be recovered once given away, and the environmental damage can't be undone.