Lucky guy. UW football Bret Bielema is getting a roughly 47% pay raise while most state workers are having their unions dismantled and being told that they can't get a raise beyond the consumer price index without a referendum.
The UW Board of Regents approved pay raises for Wisconsin football coach Bret Bielema and offensive coordinator Paul Chryst in a closed session, said UW-Madison Chancellor Biddy Martin, who was in the meeting.
According to information released earlier, Bielema's compensation package is set to increase from $1.7 million to $2.5 million. Chryst's compensation will increase from $305,000 to more than $400,000.
Bielema and Chryst join the ranks of law enforcement and fire fighters as state employees who are not being totally screwed over.
Beyond this, Walker's announcement concerns me because of a little detail that was tucked in at the very end of the WSJ's overview:
The bill also calls for selling off the state's heating plants, with the money raised helping to balancing the budget.
A) How would we citizens be affected by the heating plants being privatized?
B) Does Walker have designs on selling off any more public infrastructure? Why not sell state parks to loggers and our highways to Morgan Stanley, Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, and Allianz Capital Partners?
2 comments:
Selling off state of Wisconsin heating plants could potentially be crippling. For example, UW Madison utilizes 3 plants for operation. Charter St., Walnut St., and WCCF (west campus cogeneration facility. Owned by UW, operated by MG&E) these plants collectively heat, cool, and provide compressed air to the entire campus including UW hospital. This is Billions of dollars of collective infrastructure that would be at the mercy of private industry. If they decided to raise the price of services (steam,air,chilled water) the entire campus would be at it's mercy. Furthermore a private industries job is to make money. I see no way anyone would buy these plants if they were not going to. BAD IDEA Walker!!!
It could be bad but it could work out well. I don't know. Privatizing infrastructure isn't bad a priori but I'd like more discussion before the government starts auctioning off public property.
Post a Comment