some 340 Department of Commerce workers would no longer be State employees."Fired, as we used to say, sans the dainty euphemisms.
Governor Walker in his benevolence had previously indicated he would try to hire back some of the employees under his Hoosier-like privatization scheme "if" he could find any good ones: If.
That gives you some insight into the right-wing mentality of the new administration, whose assumed premise is that a pool of 340 State workers must contain zero "good ones," simply by definition.
The legislation said that the salary for the head of the Economic Development Corp. would be determined by the agency's board. That appeared to remove a current cap on the salary of the state commerce secretary now set at $135,300.And that completes the insight: fire workers, and raise executive compensation. Et voilà!, it's a Scott Walker "job creation proposal."
Nice message.
It's not clear what Walker thinks will be improved with privatization. It makes me wonder what he's running from as well as where he things he's running.
ReplyDeleteYes, any government entity can sub-contract its tasks to private agencies, but our State's open records laws still apply.
Wis. Stat. § 19.36. Limitations upon access and withholding. (3) CONTRACTORS' RECORDS. Subject to sub. (12), each authority shall make available for inspection and copying under s. 19.35 (1) any record produced or collected under a contract entered into by the authority with a person other than an authority to the same extent as if the record were maintained by the authority. This subsection does not apply to the inspection or copying of a record under s. 19.35 (1) (am)