What is the sum of the parts in Wisconsin? In a previous diary I explored the union busting and Mr. Walker's attempts to circumvent the legislature as he rewrites the rules for Medicaid as blatant examples of consolidating power at the executive level. But consolidating power is not useful unless you're hoping to do big things. And Scott Walker is hoping to do big things - privatization being the biggest.
Gov. Walker proclaimed in his inauguration that " Wisconsin is Open for Business ." He means that literally.
If history is any guide, the proposed changes in organizing rights for public employees as well as the changes to Medicaid will lead to a vastly diminished role for state government in the administration of support & care for the most at-risk, the most in need. And Governor Walker won't stop there, ultimately driving most of the administration of services (education being the biggest) away from state and into the private sector. His past acts as Milwaukee County Executive, his current actions as Governor, and his complicit Republican counterparts in the legislature are all but ensuring that result.
To see the whole of these moving parts, its instructive to understand Scott Walker's role in key developments surrounding public aid for Wisconsin's largest and most impoverished city, Milwaukee (recently named the 4th poorest city in the nation).
Following the model created 2001 when the administration of child protective services was transferred from Milwaukee County to the State Department of Health and Human Services, Scott Walker advocated throughout his tenure as Milwaukee County Executive for the state to take over administration of public assistance programs. In 2009, he got his wish...sort of.
In February 2009, then Governor Doyle instructed his HHS Secretary to take over administration of Milwaukee's food assistance, medical care, and child care aid to families in Wisconsin's welfare system. But much to Walker's chagrin, rather than take on the entire liability, the state opted for a "hybrid" approach, providing only state managers to supervise county employees, essentially stripping leadership roles from county government. Workers were not the problem they said, management was simply not meeting minimum state or national standards.
Walker sued the state, not because they took over management, rather because they did not assume responsibility for the employees. In April of 2009, Walker and the Doyle administration reached a settlement that gave the state until March 2011 to improve the programs by meeting a set of predetermined standards. If those standards were not met the county could take over management again, the state could continue, or management could be provided through other means.
So Scott Walker cut a deal to ensure administration of public programs in the state's most impoverished city would be an open question by the time he hoped he would be sitting in the Governor's mansion in 2011. He then helped limit the options available by leaving Milwaukee County government on the brink of bankruptcy and thus unable to consider providing leadership of the programs currently under state control (while none of the current candidates for County Executive have stated their preference on the issue).
So the only options left are 1) for the state to continue to administer these critical programs or 2) contract out to private companies/organizations. And since Scott Walker had no interest in administering these programs as a County Executive and clearly has no interest in administering them as Governor; well, you see where this is headed.
And thus it will begin. And since public employees will have lost any leverage with the state, the transition to contractors and private entities administering programs (with little to no oversight) will begin with relative ease. Public employees will be laid-off, fewer actual services will be available, and overall costs will increase (as well as fraud and abuse).
Usually things as big as this run the usual course of debate among the community and most importantly, both houses of State government. That's how our democracy works: slow, methodical, messy, but always with voices heard, including those of dissent. But in the fading democracy of Wisconsin, Republican "lawmakers" have abdicated the legislature from governing these issues. As far as their concerned, Governor Walker knows best. And for Governor Walker that means "Wisconsin, Inc." is open for business.
The country is now watching. If he is successful, other governors are sure to follow.