SCOTT WALKER RECREATING WISCONSIN AS A CORPORATE STATE
As a Wisconsin State legislator from the Milwaukee suburb of Wauwatosa, Scott Walker was an uninspiring back-bencher.
As Milwaukee County Executive, he did set-piece battle with a more liberal Board of Supervisors, regularly introduced 'no-tax-increase' budgets he knew would be boosted by the Board for a bigger, no-increase (sic) base the following year, but didn't really indicate any big plans for governing that included the kind of the tectonic shifts he's proposing and implementing as Governor.
Somewhere in think-tank land, there's a blueprint for structural change from which he's working, and democracy in the state is yielding to authoritarian, corporatist hegemony. The goal: GOP, one-party, ideologically hard-edged rule, where business - - their taxes cut in Walker's first few weeks - - gets to run the show.
As Milwaukee County Executive, he did set-piece battle with a more liberal Board of Supervisors, regularly introduced 'no-tax-increase' budgets he knew would be boosted by the Board for a bigger, no-increase (sic) base the following year, but didn't really indicate any big plans for governing that included the kind of the tectonic shifts he's proposing and implementing as Governor.
Somewhere in think-tank land, there's a blueprint for structural change from which he's working, and democracy in the state is yielding to authoritarian, corporatist hegemony. The goal: GOP, one-party, ideologically hard-edged rule, where business - - their taxes cut in Walker's first few weeks - - gets to run the show.
Walker showed his hand early, remaking, with his legislative allies the Department of Commerce into a hybrid, giving the private sector more control over the agency and a fresh $200 million in funding from a state Walker keeps saying is broke.
He also early on aggregated to his office the power to approve state agency rules that normally required a public hearing by a joint committee of the legislature. Businesses complained for years that the process was slow, particularly when it came to rules proposed by the Department of Natural Resources.
Not content with appointing business and trade association representatives to the top management positions at the DNR, and to its governing board, Walker is now proposing, by Executive order, to re-fashion the DNR into something new - - a so-called Charter agency, not unlike a Charter school freed from some school administration procedures.
Walker's plan would institute faster (read: with less public input, minimal scientific and common-purpose analysis) business permitting procedures, and more hiring by his pro-business DNR leadership team without some standard state employee selection procedures.
No one knows if this is a legal plan, but Walker has a working majority on the State Supreme Court, and as a leading Milwaukee talk show host said the day after the GOP November, 2010 sweep, "they can do anything they want."
This comes at a time when Walker and his legislative allies are pushing for a change in the way mining permits are reviewed.
An iron mine is on the table for Northwest Wisconsin near Lake Superior: the Walker plan would set an arbitrary, breathtakingly short limit for the permit review of 300 days, regardless of the complexity of the issues involved, and a hearing is set for the proposal though a bill has yet to be introduced.
The Walker people are playing for keeps: with control of both houses, there are plans moving ahead quickly to embed in state law a broad right-wing agenda before July 12th - - the date on which recall elections have been scheduled which could tip the State Senate back to the Democrats and stall the advance of Walker's agenda.
Moving to quick approvals, for example: Concealed carry of firearms, perhaps without a training requirement; election law changes requiring photo IDs and moving the traditional September primary to August, when students are on vacation.
Up for discussion: splitting the state university system's flagship campus in Madison off into a separate school with a separate board controlled by Walker.
Rumored: A quickie redistricting to foil some of the recall proponents from voting out Republican Senators.
And to be approved with the next several weeks: a two-year state budget that slashes numerous programs, forces more cuts or tax increases at the local level, and favors school choice over public education, among other fundamental, structural changes in multiple state and local operations.
He even in this budget would levy higher state income taxes on some working poor families while creating a new tax break for business funded at almost the same amount.
With Walker, anything is possible - - a lesson learned the hard way when he withheld the extent of his anti-union planning until after the election which he won with only 52% - - but which Dennis Kucinich forced Walker to admit under oath.
Imagine that: A governor forced, finally, to admit he'd concealed what ended up rocking Wisconsin, media and labor - - but only because this time, he had sworn to tell the truth.
He also early on aggregated to his office the power to approve state agency rules that normally required a public hearing by a joint committee of the legislature. Businesses complained for years that the process was slow, particularly when it came to rules proposed by the Department of Natural Resources.
Not content with appointing business and trade association representatives to the top management positions at the DNR, and to its governing board, Walker is now proposing, by Executive order, to re-fashion the DNR into something new - - a so-called Charter agency, not unlike a Charter school freed from some school administration procedures.
Walker's plan would institute faster (read: with less public input, minimal scientific and common-purpose analysis) business permitting procedures, and more hiring by his pro-business DNR leadership team without some standard state employee selection procedures.
No one knows if this is a legal plan, but Walker has a working majority on the State Supreme Court, and as a leading Milwaukee talk show host said the day after the GOP November, 2010 sweep, "they can do anything they want."
This comes at a time when Walker and his legislative allies are pushing for a change in the way mining permits are reviewed.
An iron mine is on the table for Northwest Wisconsin near Lake Superior: the Walker plan would set an arbitrary, breathtakingly short limit for the permit review of 300 days, regardless of the complexity of the issues involved, and a hearing is set for the proposal though a bill has yet to be introduced.
The Walker people are playing for keeps: with control of both houses, there are plans moving ahead quickly to embed in state law a broad right-wing agenda before July 12th - - the date on which recall elections have been scheduled which could tip the State Senate back to the Democrats and stall the advance of Walker's agenda.
Moving to quick approvals, for example: Concealed carry of firearms, perhaps without a training requirement; election law changes requiring photo IDs and moving the traditional September primary to August, when students are on vacation.
Up for discussion: splitting the state university system's flagship campus in Madison off into a separate school with a separate board controlled by Walker.
Rumored: A quickie redistricting to foil some of the recall proponents from voting out Republican Senators.
And to be approved with the next several weeks: a two-year state budget that slashes numerous programs, forces more cuts or tax increases at the local level, and favors school choice over public education, among other fundamental, structural changes in multiple state and local operations.
He even in this budget would levy higher state income taxes on some working poor families while creating a new tax break for business funded at almost the same amount.
With Walker, anything is possible - - a lesson learned the hard way when he withheld the extent of his anti-union planning until after the election which he won with only 52% - - but which Dennis Kucinich forced Walker to admit under oath.
Imagine that: A governor forced, finally, to admit he'd concealed what ended up rocking Wisconsin, media and labor - - but only because this time, he had sworn to tell the truth.
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