Under the budget-repair bill passed by the Assembly on Friday, no bids would be required for the state to sell up to 37 heating and cooling plants across the state.

The bill would empower the secretary of the state Department of Administration to sell the plants, which primarily serve University of Wisconsin campuses, including those in Madison and Milwaukee, as well as state prisons and other facilities.

In a change from a similar proposal that Republican lawmakers sought six years ago, the bill stripped a requirement that the Public Service Commission review whether the sale is in the public interest.

During their marathon debate on the budget-repair bill, Democrats unsuccessfully sought changes to the plants issue, including a requirement that competitive bids be sought and another to restore PSC review of the deals.

"We do not put a check on the executive that this body should," said Democratic Rep. Louis Molepske, who has a plant in his district, serving UW-Stevens Point.

The provision primarily affects small coal-fired plants that generate steam or chilled water for heating and cooling buildings. It's hard to get an accurate assessment of their worth because they're so intertwined with the buildings they serve, said Darin Renner, an analyst with the Legislative Fiscal Bureau.

The Fiscal Bureau analyzed the facilities in 2005, the last time the proposal was before the Legislature, and estimated the total value of all the plants at $235.9 million, offset by $83.9 million in debt.

Common Cause of Wisconsin, a government watchdog group, raised concerns that the no-bid clause could have been written to benefit a campaign donor such as Koch Industries, the largest corporate contributor to Gov. Scott Walker in the campaign.

Koch Industries denied any interest in buying the plants.

Walker last year criticized then-Gov. Jim Doyle, a Democrat, for his support of a no-bid contract for the Spanish train car manufacturer Talgo. On Friday, Walker spokesman Cullen Werwie declined to comment directly on the governor's different stances on no-bid contracts.

"The idea was to begin the process to move forward and see if selling the heating plants would be saving taxpayers money," Werwie said.

The Legislature's Joint Finance Committee left the no-bid language in the bill, though it added a requirement that the Republican-controlled committee would have to sign off on the deal.

Rep. Brett Hulsey (D-Madison) said he didn't oppose the no-bid contract for Talgo because it was for a company poised to create jobs in the state. But he said it's inconsistent for Walker to oppose no-bid contracts one year and support them the next.

"Selling off the public's assets in a no-bid process? That's irresponsible," Hulsey said.

In a news conference this week, Walker declined to address the no-bid aspect of the bill, but insisted the state wouldn't rush into a deal.

"We're going to have an open and accountable process so that everyone knows who's interested in that, and what the process is," Walker said. "This only gives us the option. We're only going to move forward on this if it's good for the taxpayers and good ultimately for the ratepayers in this state."

A Wisconsin utility leader and the head of a utility watchdog group both questioned why any private company would be interested in the plants.

"They'd be lucky to get one bid," said Charlie Higley, executive director of the Citizens' Utility Board, a utility customer group. "But the governor's policy is still wrong. No bid is not good."

Higley said he believes the state would be hard-pressed to find a lower-cost option than running the plants itself, because its borrowing costs are lower than a private company's, and it doesn't need to earn a profit on its investment.

"Any private company is going to want to earn a return on that investment, and the only way they would end up doing that is to charge higher prices for the steam or the electricity, and that means higher costs for Wisconsin," Higley said.

David Benforado said he was glad there will be Joint Finance Committee review of any plant sales, but said that based on his experience running Municipal Electric Utilities of Wisconsin, there may not be much value in the plants.

"These plants are probably all fully depreciated plants, and that's not the time to sell," he said.

Jeff Plale, a former Democratic state senator who was hired by the Walker administration to run the Division of State Facilities, said he didn't think a bidding process is appropriate for the sale of the heating plants. "A bid implies that there is a value in the physical asset," he said.

It's difficult to tell what kind of price they could fetch, particularly because of environmental liabilities. Several of the old coal plants are in potential violation of the Clean Air Act because they lack modern pollution controls, Plale said.

"A number of these plants have potential environmental liabilities hanging over their head. How that falls into the mix still needs to be addressed," Plale said.