Wisconsin is officially up for sale under Scott Walker, as his administration begins the process of selling off state assets without a competitive bidding process.
The Department of Administration yesterday released a list of dozens of state-owned properties eligible to be sold or leased through a contentious provision in Scott Walker’s most recent budget that gave the administration broad authority to make no-bid sales.
Included on the list are all of the state’s 32 heating and cooling plants, which Walker tried to sell off with a provision in his first budget that was ultimately rejected by both Democrats and Republicans.
Also included on the list are telecommunications towers and related infrastructure around the state, administrative buildings in Madison and Milwaukee, the Northern Wisconsin Center in Chippewa Falls, and land surrounding the state Department of Transportation building that has been described as prime commercial real estate.
Just a year ago, it was reported that Madison developer and former Republican candidate for U.S. Senate, Terrence Wall, wrote Walker to discuss his interest in purchasing a number of state assets.
Wall is also a significant funder of Republican candidates and causes in Wisconsin; the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign lists Wall’s contributions at more than $8,854 to Walker between 2005 and 2012 and more than $77,000 to mostly Republican candidates overall.
“Wisconsin really is up for sale, and it probably won’t even be to the highest bidder, although we’ll never know since Scott Walker’s cronies are making the deals,” Democratic Party of Wisconsin Chair Mike Tate said Wednesday. “Everything about this ill-conceived plan to sell off state assets suggests a typical Walker pay-to-play scheme and not a real attempt to counter Scott Walker’s fiscal mismanagement that has pushed Wisconsin’s debt level to an all-time high.”
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