More Central Planning, Government Power Is Walker's Job #1

Gov. Walker's so-called pro-business agenda is rolling through the legislature because his allies control both houses. It's not because the agenda has inherent, a priori value and truth. Power politics is underway. To the victors go the spoils.

But lost in the partisan hoopla and self-served framing is something harder to see: the expanded role Walker wants government to play in social and economic planning.

*  Take his proposed wind turbine siting law. It will severely restrict how and when a property owner could lease or sell land to a utility. Conservatives have been belly-aching for years that the Department of Natural Resources does this very thing - - and Walker put a team of private-sector leaders into the agency to run it - - but his wind turbine plan will disallow many property owners statewide from exercising control of their own land.

[Update: WISC-TV3 in Madison reports Thursday afternoon that the bill is dead. We'll see...]

*  The shift of administrative rule approvals to the Governor's office from the legislature centralizes his authority and removes key legal and policy reviews from legislative hearing procedures.

*  The privatization of some Commerce Department activities puts economic planning authority in the hands of less accountable officials who can then further manipulate government resources, policy development and rule-making directly with the Governor.

* Walker's election supposedly validated free-markets, and unfettered competition - - but right off the bat he signed into law state imposed caps on punitive damages in lawsuit awards - - so victims have the weight of the state brought against them on behalf of manufacturers and insurers.

So the government that says it is for deregulation is enacting new restrictions on certain individuals, and special interests.

Walker's main goal is to cement his political fund-raising base in the Republican Party and its powerful private-sector donors in the statewide chamber of commerce, plus the transportation and the home-building sectors.

Politics first, survivability and extension in office, first - - and then if there is spin-off job-creation or some trickle-down hiring, the same small-government spin machine that is pulling off greater government control will grab off all the credit.