Making money on your drinking water is plan in Madison

La Crosse mayor thinks it’s
an unnecessary proposal

Making a profit on your drinking water would be much easier under a proposal getting work by state lawmakers in Wisconsin. 

It’s a plan getting pushed by a multi-state company that wants to buy a couple of utilities in Wisconsin. 

La Crosse mayor Tim Kabat doesn’t think much of the plan in Madison to ease the rules, so private companies can buy up public water utilities.

“I think it’s a solution in search of a problem,” Kabat said. “I don’t know, in talking to other mayors around the state, there really wasn’t an outcry that I’m aware of, at the local level, of needing the assistance or other options of privatizing these utilities.”

Kabat thinks local governments should provide essential services like police, fire and water. State lawmakers could soon send a water-privatization plan to Gov. Scott Walker for signature.