Scott Walker Auctioning off DNR Land to Cover His Fiscal Deficit

Scott Walker in 2011, pathological liar
then and now.

Wildlife refuges, protected river-front property, fisheries' land, forests, and on and on—come and get it, everything must go.

Notes Bernie Starzewski‎ from Manitowoc County, "A list of all the lands Walker and the Republicans are auctioning off to cover [Walker's budget] deficits" can be found at Land Sale listing of Wisconsin DNR, with more to come.

Scott Walker invented a fiscal crisis in 2011, and then made a real fiscal crisis through tax cuts for wealthy campaign contributors, while pushing for the power to sell off public land to foreign investors and his campaign donors.

The Wisconsin State Building Commission is chaired by Scott Walker though the website conceals the membership. Members can be found here at the Wisconsin DoA ['Department of All'], dominated by Republicans eager to please flush developers.

Walker selling off state assets to cover his corruption and fiscal incompetence is not breaking news, but bears noting repetitiously as Wisconsin might take a long time to recover from the corrupter and thief in the night (Wisconsin Public Radio, The Political Environment).

In Dane County, public lands on the auctioning block include sanctuaries and land described by the DoA as Token Creek Rearing Station, Scattered Wildlife and Extensive Wildlife Habitat. The DNR websites are broken and omit any more information about the lands.

The Token Creek Rearing Station is described by the Wisconsin State Historical Society as sited in the town of Burke.

Scott Walker Is Gone

I thought it was cold in February.

A friend was on the capitol square this week; felt cold in the wind though it was just in the 20s.

Friend was getting recall signatures, laughed about the weather and said, "Labor of love."

One million signatures seems realistic. Fond du Lac County, Dodge County, up North, everywhere people know what Scott Walker is and are ready to boot him out of office.

And the grassroots is doing what is needed; building a Party of the people.

By the way, a good piece at: Walker admits Union Money the reason for Attacking Collective Bargaining.

Exactly what State Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald said on Fox in March.

Wisconsin Answers

Thousands of demonstrators protest outside the Wisconsin State Capitol March 12, 2011 in Madison, Wis. They gathered to voice opposition to a new law essentially eliminating collective bargaining rights for state workers. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)
Via In These Times

The Wisconsin Lie Exposed – Taxpayers Actually Contribute Nothing to Public Employee Pensions

The foundation (such as it is) behind Gov. Scott Walker's 'budget repair bill' has just been demolished.

By Rick Ungar at Forbes Online Magazine

Pulitzer Prize winning tax reporter, David Cay Johnston, has written a brilliant piece for tax.com exposing the truth about who really pays for the pension and benefits for public employees in Wisconsin.

Gov. Scott Walker says he wants state workers covered by collective bargaining agreements to “contribute more” to their pension and health insurance plans. Accepting Gov. Walker’ s assertions as fact, and failing to check, creates the impression that somehow the workers are getting something extra, a gift from taxpayers. They are not. Out of every dollar that funds Wisconsin’ s pension and health insurance plans for state workers, 100 cents comes from the state workers.
- Via tax.com

How can this be possible?

Simple. The pension plan is the direct result of deferred compensation- money that employees would have been paid as cash salary but choose, instead, to have placed in the state operated pension fund where the money can be professionally invested (at a lower cost of management) for the future.

Many of us are familiar with the concept of deferred compensation from reading about the latest multi-million dollar deal with some professional athlete. As a means of allowing their ball club to have enough money to operate, lowering their own tax obligations and for other benefits, ball players often defer payment of money they are to be paid to a later date. In the meantime, that money is invested for the ball player’s benefit and then paid over at the time and in the manner agreed to in the contract between the parties.

Does anyone believe that, in the case of the ball player, the deferred money belongs to the club owner rather than the ball player? Is the owner simply providing this money to the athlete as some sort of gift? Of course not. The money is salary to be paid to the ball player, deferred for receipt at a later date.

Read the rest at Rick Ungar at Forbes Online Magazine

Scott Walker Is Attacking the Livelihood of Wisconsin Families

It is God-awful bad.

Now is the time for every elected federal, state, county and municipal official to get out in the street.

We have a governor who can blithely tell the state in prime time that he has no compunction about firing workers, destroying the very livelihood of Wisconsin families for his own political ends that he believes "eventually" will become the consensus, as he tells George Will [who can't help but take gratuitous shots at the civil rights and peace movement in Madison].

In the mean time, families will just have to do without their jobs, as Walker and GOP legislative aides from Sen. Randy Hopper's office (R-Fond du Lac) smirk at callers.

This 'budget repair" bill is so loaded with weapons against Wisconsin families; it's difficult to address all the harm. Women, seniors, minorities, workers, anyone who is not a demonstrated Republican or Tea Partier is in some peril.

Here's one huge problem: Walker's threat to begin lay-offs next week if he does not get his way is a direct attack on families

Never has a Wisconsin governor so explicitly demonstrated genuine malice towards the people whom he is supposed to serve.

The sense of entitlement that Walker displays: Now that he is governor he can act in any manner he chooses reveals the mind-set that Norman Cousins described as the "pathology of power."

Walker is King George W. cubed at the height of his delusions from which we are still recovering.

It's crisis time alright; we have a maddened tyrant wreaking havoc onto our families.

People have fought and literally died for the rights such as collective bargaining that we take for granted today, or at least we did until Scott Walker assumed office.

As the great labor historians, Sidney Lens and Howard Zinn, remind us in their work, labor rights were won with blood, cracked skulls and destroyed families.

A recall will happen next year for Walker; and now is the time for militant action and civil disobedience.

This fool, and that is what Scott Walker is, has no conception of what he is doing.

Local Officials Fight Back as Nation Joins the Battle

Update: Scott Walker admits objective on collective bargaining: Weakening unions

- Live Coverage from Madison and AFLCIO Coverage and Not My Wisconsin -

"Madison Mayor Dave Cieslewicz and more than 160 local officials from La Crosse to Milwaukee on Tuesday sent a letter to the governor and Legislature arguing that severe restrictions on collective bargaining undercut local control and the ability to deliver cost-effective, quality services," reports Dean Mosiman.

Democratic state senators say they are not giving up on Wisconsin families. They demand Walker halts the anti-collective bargaining vote until Gov. Walker says he'll negotiate.

Supporters are still coming to Madison from across the United States to what Rev. Jesse Jackson calls the "epicenter of the battle for America's democracy, and it is as American as Lexington, Concord, Gettysburg, Montgomery and Selma."

As Walker stays on target on Wisconsin families, it's worth noting that Finance, Insurance and Real Estate is the number one sector which contributed to Walker's campaign, according to the site, Follow the Money.

Jack E. Lohman has a new piece out. Writes Lohman:

Like, how about giving the governor the authority to sell off state assets (power plants), without bids, at any price they choose, even for pennies on the dollar, to private interests, even to those that fund Walker’s campaign???

As in Senate Bill 11: ...

So a no-bid contract to sell off the state power plants to the (4th highest Walker contributor) oil-tycoon Koch Brothers (see also here) will very likely occur, and consumer energy rates and corporate product prices will increase.

There is no other reasonable scenario. The taxpayers have no say in it, and the unions don’t yet realize that this isn’t an issue about worker rights.

Remember when Walker also wanted to sell off the Milwaukee airport when he was county executive.

Fireside Crap

Madison, Wisconsin—Gov. Scott Walker's chat with Wisconsin last night has all the sincerity of the AIG derivatives executive's 2008 assurance to investors that their money is safely and productively at work months before the economic catastrophe hit.

But Walker goes in for reverse-Enron accounting, claiming a deficit crisis when no such crisis exists.

Unfortunately for Walker, that pesky non-partisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau (LFB) has debunked the budget crisis notion, as State Rep, Mark Pocan (D-Madison) points out, a fact Walker refuses to address.

Worse, Walker claims he will be forced to lay off workers if he doesn't get his way on the budget; saying he doesn't want to lay people off, even as he refuses to negotiate.

Here is a partial list of highlights and significant omissions from Walker's chat:

• No mention of the corporate give-aways and their clear relevancy to the budget, or his promises to the super-wealthy
• Claimed appreciation for working families whose members he is threatening to lay off
• Using the passive voice to absolve himself of responsibility for laying off workers and devastating families; it's an old politician's trick in the tradition of 'mistakes were made,' Walker said, "If there is no agreement by July 1st, another 5-6 thousand state workers -- as well as 5-6 thousand local government employees would be also laid off," in addition to those workers Walker promises to axe next week if Walker does not get his way on ending collective bargaining, animated by what Walker assures us "isn't a battle with unions," or he would" have gone after the private-sector unions," the Wagner Act notwithstanding in Walker's most bizarre statement of the evening
• Continued lying about the "budget deficit" as though Walker has no choice but to accept the 6.2 percent increase in state agencies that the LFB says would lead to a short-fall in the vanishingly unlikely event that the legislature adopts the estimate as a budget
• No mention of the fact that all of Wisconsin's school districts, counties, and municipalities have never asked of Walker to implement his scheme to forbid collective bargaining, and in fact are requesting that he not end collective bargaining (Mosiman). Walker's proposed end to collective bargaining "goes far beyond what we asked for. We were not expecting to abolish the collective bargaining process altogether," said Dan Thompson, executive director of the League of Wisconsin Municipalities. [See also Tarr.]
• Implying that "millions of taxpayers from across the state" do not include those working families who disagree with Walker
• Deriding workers demonstrating solidarity as an ominous occurrence as "more and more protesters come in from Nevada, Chicago and elsewhere" overwhelming the voices of the millions of taxpayers from across the state, save public workers who do not pay taxes apparently in Walker world
• Calling for pension contributions increases without mentioning the unions' offer to do just that as Wisconsin's pension fund remains among the nation's healthiest (Carter)
• Refusing to mention that public unions have made good-faith offers on pensions, health care, salaries; and that Walker refuses to negotiate

Many more lies are found in the brief address.

The rest is typical divide-and-conquer rhetoric, pitting the unemployed against the employed, the pubic versus the private sector, and demonizing Democratic state senators who are fighting for collective bargain for Wisconsin families.

"Do the job you were elected to do," Walker said. "You don't have to like the outcome, or even vote yes, but as part of the world's greatest democracy, you should be here, in Madison, at the Capitol."

Yes, but aren't Democratic state senators protecting Wisconsin families? Walker refuses to engage the question.

This is not a governor. This is a ruler who is willing to terrorize Wisconsin working families for his petty pursuit of power and narrow ideology. And Walker thinks he is untouchable.

To conclude on a positive note when Walker looks at the camera and lies, he presents a visage more appealing than Richard Nixon's, though a viewer is left with the impression of a well-concealed smirk of someone who just got away with cheating on an exam.

This will change. Walker is desperate as polls show most Americans and an increasing number of GOP governors reject the idea of demonizing public workers and outlawing collective bargaining.

As Alex Pareene writes in Salon of Walker's chat, "It was not a particularly inspiring or convincing performance, and I imagine a lot of Wisconsinites are still suffering from buyer's remorse tonight."

No doubt, but Walker has revitalized the progressive movement in Wisconsin to a degree that this writer has never seen. The world is watching and outside of Appalachia and the Old South, the world stands with Wisconsin workers.

Walker Caught in Lie, Jettisons Local Community Control

Sarah Palin Protester: This bill's stupid and I know stupid.

Used to be that Republicans claimed they were all for local control.

'Local communities know what's best for them' was a political article of faith, virtually a requirement for local candidates to get elected.

Not any more.

Gov. Scott Walker says he knows best now. And those independent-minded Tea Partiers are marching right in line.

After Walker claimed that public teachers, nurses, cooks, EMTs and so on cost too much money, public unions called Walker's bluff Friday and said: Pay cuts, benefit cuts, pension cuts are all on the table, so let's talk in good faith.

Walker rebuked the overture, revealing his obvious agenda to break public unions because, Walker says, the state has to control our local school districts, Wisconsin counties, cites, towns and villages who need help with their public servants. And they cannot do so without Walker's help.

"We can't expect for our 72 counties, for our 424 school districts and for more than 1,000 municipal governments across the state of Wisconsin that somehow, magically, because a few people are suggesting they might be willing to come to the table now, that we can ensure that every district and every jurisdiction is able to achieve these savings just because a few people are now at the 11th hour claiming they want to negotiate," said Walker on Friday.

Right. Every Wisconsin county, city, town and village can't meet their fiscal budgets without their communities taking direct orders from you, Scott Walker. You know better than they.

Guess what? These public unions are neighbors and servants, and these communities have a lot more respect for them than you do.

Walker's Problems in High-Stakes Battle

Update: See Live Coverage from Madison Wisconsin.

The problems with Gov. Walker and the GOP are their own.

In good-faith negotiations, you recognize your opponents' position and sit down and hash out a compromise.

Not Gov. Walker.

• Not only does he refuse to negotiate, he refuses to recognize the public unions' right to exist and organize, out of vengeance for their opposing him in the last election.“If they succeed in Wisconsin, the birthplace of A.F.S.C.M.E., they will be emboldened to attack workers’ rights in every state,” Mr. Gerald McEntee, president of A.F.S.C.M.E said. “Instead of trying to work with public employees at the bargaining table, they’ve decided to throw away the table.” (Cooper, Seelye; NYT) 
• Walker is also attempting to suppress and obstruct Democratically leaning voters, such as college students, in the Voter ID and end-same-day registration bills, for those opposing him in the last election.
• And, I have been told, Walker is seeking to see that his allies redraw the Congressional, state Assembly and Senate districts for Democrats' opposing him in the last election. Specifically, Rep. Tammy Baldwin (D-Madison) is being targeted.

These are not the actions of a governor of all Wisconsin citizens. These are the anti-democratic assaults of a vindictive partisan.

WEAU reports a recall of Walker would need to begin on January 2012: "Organizers would need signatures totaling 25 percent of the votes case in the last gubernatorial election. In Walker's case, that translates to about 540,200 names." (AP. Feb. 18. 2011)

Walker is desperate now, and he would be wise to heed the voice of Wisconsin today. When you hurt some one's family, memories die hard.

Walker Exposed; Rejects Concessions, Demands No Collective Bargaining

Update: As the Tea Partiers rush to defend a desperate Gov. Scott Walker today, Forbes reports, Koch Brothers Behind Wisconsin Effort to Kill Public Unions.

In other news, Rush Limbaugh went a rant last night calling Wisconsin families "freeloaders."

Walker's Bluff Called

Wisconsin public unions have said all along they will compromise, negotiate and make concessions as they have for decades.

Wisconsin citizens have accused Gov. Walker as lying about his true motives in the so-called "budget repair" bill that contains language to bust unions and political opponents by outlawing collective bargaining for public unions.

Now, the unions have again called Walker's bluff.

"Mary Bell, president of the Wisconsin Education Association Council, and Marty Beil, executive director of AFSCME Council 24, said in a conference call with reporters [last night] that workers will do their fair share to narrow Wisconsin's budget gap." [Hall, Spicuzza, Barbour; WSJ)

All Bell demands is that Wisconsin working families be allowed to continue the right to collectively bargain and organize as before.

Walker refused the offer in a rambling response that personally I still cannot decipher.

The plain truth is Walker and the GOP want to destroy unions, they want to obstruct Democratically leaning voters ("Voter ID"), especially College students; gerrymander all voting districts (Rep. Tammy Baldwin (D-Madison) is high on their list); and a host of other anti-democratic measures.

It's been written here before: What Walker and the GOP fail to understand is that Wisconsin citizens do not owe the Republican Party political allegiance or face pay-back through the budget and other legislative measures. We can vote for and work for whomever we damn please. It's called: Democracy

Walker will continue his too-slick-by-half defence of the fiscal crisis. But his expressed concern for the budget is a sham. Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Madison) has the story.Funny, but I do not recall Gov. Walker mentioning the Koch Bros. Why the silence, Gov. Walker?