Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker

[Riot]

Originally Posted by geeker2

Re: selling the power plants

Reality is that the Plants the state owns aren't worth much on the open market. They must be upgraded to new emission standards or converted to natural-gas from coal. The co-gen plant at the campuses and prisons need upgrading.

Bottom-line - Sell this crap as quick as possible and as soon as possible to anyone who is willing to buy it. The amount of money the State will have to invest will never be returned. Also these State run facilities are usually very inefficiently run by the State. It should be in the private sector with oversight by the state agencies. If the Koch Brothers are stupid enough to buy them - sell it to them quickly.

Walker maybe smarter than you think....

None of the above has anything to do with anything. The Legislative branch has control over who buys public property, soliciting bids or not, and for how much. Walker is trying to take that constitutional power away from the Legislative branch and put it with the Executive. Same with his trying to gain sole control over state medicaid/aid. The Legislature is charged by law with budgetary matters for the state, just like for the US Government it is the House.

Budgetary power is NOT a power the President, or the Governor, can simply grab because they want it.

The power plants, whether they need to be sold or not, has nothing to do with a Governor attempting an illegal power grab. The issue isn't "should the power plants be sold or not". The issue is, "To whom does the Wisconsin constitution give power to buy/sell state property?" The answer is NOT "the governor".

BTW: Newly-elected Governor Rick "My company stole billions from Medicare" Scott in Florida apparently sold two state-owned jets. Unfortunately, he didn't have the legal authority to do so. All hell is about to break loose over that down there. In between Legislators from both parties suing him for refusing the federal high-speed rail project the Legislature already approved. The Legislature maintains he didn't have the authority to capricously line-item veto a budget item already previously approved legally by the legislature and the previous governor. Governors cannot be dictators - no matter how much they want to be.