A big thank-you to xoff at UppityWisconsin for this find. Remember that power plant provision? It wasn't in the document passed by the Senate on Wednesday. But guess what! It was changed before the Assembly vote on Thursday to include it.

Thursday, the fiscal bureau was forced to correct its memo describing the bill, after unearthing some more buried treasure. Seems there were a few things the original memo forgot to mention:

There are two items in the LFB's March 10 document that are not reflected in the March 9 document.

1. The March 10 document includes a provision of the substitute amendment on the Earned Income Tax Credit (page 3, #1).

2. The March 10 document includes a provision of the substitute amendment on the Sale and Contractual Operation of State-Owned Power Plants (page 20, #1)

.

Here are images of the table of contents:

Wednesday's version - PDF (This was the one I used for my analysis):

Thursday's version - PDF (voted on by Assembly as amended):

Here's the language in the second version of the document:

1. SALE AND CONTRACTUAL OPERATION OF STATE-OWNED POWER PLANTS
Governor: Allow the Department of Administration (DOA) to sell any state-owned heating, cooling, or power plant or contract with private entities for the operation of any such plant,
with or without solicitation of bids, for any amount the Department determines to be in the best
interest of the state.

As a reminder, that power plant provision points directly to Koch Industries, who is already advertising for power plant managers.

Someone just pulled a fast one in Wisconsin. A fast one that should be illegal for so many reasons I can't count them all. But let's just call it this: Fraud. When will the Attorney General investigate?

In the meantime, Scott Walker makes the specious and disgusting claim that the only dirty tricksters are the heroic Wisconsin 14. He gives the term "sociopath" new meaning.

DOWNLOADS: (251)

PLAYS: (1643)

Embed

Update: I just spent a couple of hours going through the Wisconsin statutes, as published today. There were three iterations of the Budget Repair Bill, as published on the site. The March 10th report linked above outlines all three, so for consistency I'm going to refer to them as that report does. There is the Governor's bill, the Joint Finance, and the Conference Committee version.

The Governor's bill had the plant sale provision as originally reported earlier by Heather. The Joint Committee resolution modified that provision in certain respects, but did not materially change the basics. It added a review period and required a cost-benefit analysis, among other things. The Conference Committee version stripped everything out relating to sale or lease of facilities, leaving only the language pertaining to debt service.

According to what I can find on the Wisconsin Legislature site, the version which is now law includes the sale provisions as agreed to by the Joint Finance committee. State Senator Chris Larson confirmed that awhile ago on twitter, too. He also said he thought the two bills were identical as passed.

One of two things is going on here. Either the "Conference Committee" was a sham and they passed a bill which actually required a bigger quorum to pass, given the fiscal impact; OR, they substituted the Joint Finance version in the Assembly to include the broader powers after passing the narrower version in the Senate.

Either way, it's a bait and switch, and if it's the former, then it would seem to me that the Senate action should be easily nullified since they did not have the required quorum to pass such a bill.

This is NOT democracy at work. After a Democrat finishes his debate time and yields the floor, there's a "flash vote" and the Republican majority passes it.

Talking Points Memo:

After much buildup in the 61-hour debate -- of Republicans wanting things to be over, and Democrats railing against Republicans who they said would cut off debate -- at about 1 AM Speaker Pro Tempore Bill Kramer (R) announced that he would hear a voice vote for a roll call on final passage. Immediately, the majority Republicans shouted their ayes, and the Democrats were booing, as they tried to be recognized to demand a separate motion to cut off debate.

Then Kramer called the vote. Within seconds, the digital vote system on the wall announced 51 ayes and 17 nays, and voting was suddenly closed. With a total of 96 members, that got to a majority for the bill but left 28 members who hadn't had a chance yet to vote.

At that point, the Democrats got up, chanting "Shame! Shame! Shame!" and similar exclamations, as the Republicans filed out of the room.

Shame, indeed. After agreeing to hear debate on amendments, cutting that debate off in what certainly appears to be a coordinated and orchestrated move isn't democracy and certainly not representative democracy. It is, however, a taste of the arrogant Republican thuggery that seems to be all the rage these days.

One of the concerns over this flash vote was the possibility that the Capitol building would be closed to protesters, who have created a little city inside during the protest. According to the WSJ, all but the first floor will close to overnight protesters now that there are no legislative hearings or sessions.

I don't think that will deter anyone, especially after seeing the strongarm tactics of the Birch Republicans in Wisconsin.

Update: The National Basketball Players Association (NBPA) just released a statement in solidarity with the Wisconsin workers.

New York, February 25, 2011 -- “Last night’s vote by the Wisconsin Assembly was an attempt to undermine organized labor and the men and women across the country who depend on their unions for a voice in the workplace. The NBPA proudly supports our brothers and sisters in Wisconsin and their stand for unequivocal collective bargaining rights.” – Billy Hunter, NBPA Executive Director

“Wisconsin public-sector workers tirelessly deliver services on a daily basis to millions of Wisconsin residents. The right of these hard-working men and women to organize and bargain collectively is fundamental. Wisconsin’s workers deserve better than last night’s vote. Today, our union stands proudly with our fellow union members throughout the state as they continue their fight.” – Keyon Dooling, NBPA First Vice President, Milwaukee Bucks

UPDATE: Lawrence O'Donnell talked to Democratic Assemblyman Cory Mason and Republican Assembly Majority Leader Scott Suder on the outrageous and unprecedented behavior of the Assembly Republicans. Watch how Suder employs the Republican playbook of deflecting all of O'Donnell's questions and talking over Mason's airtime.

DOWNLOADS: (1431)

PLAYS: (10621)

Embed

While the Democratic Senators filibuster Governor Scott Walker's budget bill, the state Assembly is debating it. Tell me this Representative isn't expressing the anger most of us feel at the concerted effort of newly-elected right wing lawmakers to smash every value we hold dear, without debate.

I hope Mr. Hintz takes blood pressure medication, because I have to believe it was off the charts while he was giving his speech.

Unfortunately, there's no transcript available for this, but a transcript would not give you the full sense of how outraged this man is over how he was notified of the bill and how Republicans are steamrolling Democrats. It's quite cathartic to watch.