Looks like the State Senate won't 'debate' the forest-closing-for-potential-mining bill this week, and the reason is pretty clear.
Walker is wobbling in the wake of the double-barreled Scott Suder scandal - - first the sweetheart $500,000 annual earmark Suder put into the budget to fund a politically-friendly 'sportsman's' group, then the fat state job Walker handed Suder for jobs well done.
So this probably isn't the right time for Walker's legislators to hand out fresh and unjustifiable public land and tax favors to special interests - - in this case, the West Virginia-based mining firm GTAC with a record of donations to Walker & Co. - - already benefiting from insider access to self-serving bill-drafting.
Also little wonder that we haven't heard much about selling off state assets.
Even the ideologues running state government right now know there are tipping points and they are getting close.
It seemed to me that the passage of this law would have been a clear violation of treaty rights and enabled the Ojibwe to take their case immediately to Federal Court. At a minimum, a temporary injunction against enforcement would have resulted, further complicating GTAC's legal position. So, I think they told their legislative employees to back off.
ReplyDeleteit's also right before deer hunting season. Nothing like pissing off your base by taking their vacation hunting grounds away right before the season starts. A few months and a little more finagling and his bill will probably pass.
ReplyDeleteAnd yet the GOP speeds up the Express again with the passage of landlord "rights" that completely obliterate the "rights" of tenants. All at the direction of slum lord Robin Vos and his BFF slumlord "friend" Michelle Litjens
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