The White House and Wisconsin

The White House and Wisconsin
By The Prowler on 2.21.11 @ 6:08AM

A BINDING CONTRACT
The White House has been watching the Wisconsin state employee labor fight with a degree of alarm, says a White House aide: "I think all of us recognize what this could mean for us in the re-election fight," says the aide. "Without well financed labor, we're screwed."

For several weeks, now, the Obama Administration, with staff from the Labor Department and Department of Education, among others, have been setting up working groups to examine how, if at all, they could block or reverse in some way state-based rules and laws that would draw back labor unions' abilities to collect chunks of member pay for political purposes on the state and national level.

In fact, some political advisers to President Barack Obama have been speaking with senior national labor officials about the roles they might play in the re-election bid. Says the aide: "One way to strengthen labor's position and get them politically engaged for us is through contract negotiations, and there are several, large contracts coming due in 2011 and 2012. Corporations may think they can push these unions around because of the economic situation, but we're looking for ways to ensure that if organized labor wants to fight, they will be able to fight. That can only help us politically."
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Sick Democrats and Mob Rule
By Peter Hannaford on 2.21.11 @ 6:06AM

In countries ruled by despots, if you want change you demonstrate until you get it. In Wisconsin, you send a mob to the state capitol to prevent the legislature from doing its job.

Several thousand teachers, clueless students and an assortment of thugs did that in Madison last week to prevent the legislature from voting on a bill to require teachers to pay into their retirement program and to increase the minuscule amount they pay for their health care plan. The bill also would restrict collective bargaining by their union to wage issues.

The new Governor, Scott Walker, was elected last November on pledges to do the very thing he and the legislature have been doing the last week or so. The voters returned Republican majorities in both houses. It's fair to assume all have been carrying out the wishes of the voters with this legislation.

The Democrats, now in the minority in the state senate, didn't agree with that assumption. All of them took a powder last Friday, fleeing across the state line to Illinois. Since Wisconsin law requires at least one member of the minority party to be in attendance to form a quorum, business was stalled. Clearly, these Democrats believe in majority rule only when they are in the majority.

On Thursday, more than 1,000 teachers called in sick. What kind of message does it send for a teachers to call in sick when she is not sick? Most people call that lying. Furthermore, is it not fraud when they call in sick while spending the day shouting and carrying protest signs at the state capitol and being paid sick leave by the taxpayers?

The numbers are revealing. Wisconsin teachers average $89,000 a year in salary and benefits.

The average U.S. private sector worker gets $61,000. The Wisconsin proposal is to raise teachers' contributions to their health care plan from five percent to 12.5 percent and to contribute half of their monthly pension plan deposit. By contract, private sector workers with 401(k) plans, pay in 100 percent. Their employers may (but are not required to) supplement this, usually at the end of the year when profit and loss figures are toted up.

In Washington, the president chimed in by saying he thought the state's proposed legislation amounted to "an assault on unions." It is, of course, none of his business, but then, once a community organizer, always a community organizer. Saul Alinsky would have loved the scene in Madison.

The Democratic National Committee and the National Education Association (the umbrella teachers' union) probably connived in the planning of the disruption. If not, it certainly had their tacit approval.

Meanwhile, in California, Governor Jerry Brown has submitted a budget with some cuts, but the center piece of his plan is to call a special election to let the voters decide if they want to extend certain taxes scheduled to "sunset." If vote they "no, " Brown has made a list of draconian program cuts that would follow. This is a smart ploy. He must get two-thirds approval from the legislature to put these items on the ballot. Some Republicans threaten to vote against it. If it goes down, Brown will blame them for (1) refusing to let the votes vote and (2) move directly to the draconian cuts and blame the Republicans.

Meanwhile, there is not a peep out of him about reforming the state's overly-generous public employee pension plans. They are unsustainable and he is the one person who get the unions to swallow reform. Perhaps he is waiting to see the outcome of the special election matter before showing his hand. Ironically, it was he in his first stint as governor in the Seventies who issued the order to permit public employee unions to engage in collective bargaining.
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Wisconsin governor seizes chance to take on unions
APNews

It took Scott Walker only a few weeks to push the Capitol into political chaos.

The newly elected Republican governor of Wisconsin has set his sights on forcing public workers to pay more for benefits as he looks to balance the state's budget _ savings he needs to help cover the cost of tax cuts he demanded the day he took office.

Democrats, who are no longer in power, have likened Walker to a dictator, and demonstrators protesting a contentious Walker-backed labor bill have waived signs comparing him to ousted Egyptian leader Hosni Mubarak. Even President Barack Obama has weighed in, calling the bill "an assault on unions."

Just seven weeks into his term, the 43-year-old son of a preacher has shown no sign of compromising. He has a GOP majority in both houses of the Legislature that has already helped him make good on campaign promises.

Walker insists that his push to force concessions from public employees by doubling their health insurance contributions and requiring them to pay half their pension costs is all about balancing the budget and not busting unions. But the bill also would strip them of most collective bargaining rights.

"I got elected to get Wisconsin working again and to improve the economy," Walker said in an interview with The Associated Press. "At the same time it meant fixing our budget crisis."

Wisconsin faces a $137 million budget shortfall by July. The concessions Walker seeks from the state workers would save $30 million over four months. He would balance the budget this year mainly through refinancing debt.

The increased pension and health benefit costs would save Wisconsin $300 million over the next two years, which would help buy down a projected $3.6 billion shortfall.

Michael Grebe, a Milwaukee business leader who has been a close Walker adviser and friend for the past 20 years, said the governor's proposal was consistent with his political philosophy and budgets he put forward as Milwaukee County executive that also targeted unions for concessions.

"If people are at all surprised by this then they haven't been paying attention," Grebe said. "He really does believe in skinny budgets and protecting the taxpayers. What he's doing now is completely consistent with that."

As county executive for eight years before elected governor, Walker never proposed a higher property tax levy than what was approved. To pay for that, he repeatedly sought to impose wage and benefit concessions on county workers, but was blocked by the unions and Democratic-controlled county board.

Now he has a Republican-controlled Legislature backing him all the way.

"I've always been bold," Walker said. "I've been bold at the county, which is why there's always been a lot of passion there for folks who supported me and those who opposed me, and I'm bold here, too. But you gotta be. We have no choice. Again, we're broke. We don't have any more options."

As proof that unions knew they would be targeted, Walker points to a flier circulated during last fall's campaign by union AFT-Wisconsin that warned that Walker wanted to curb the unions' power to negotiate.

In December, weeks after the election, he even suggested the possibility of abolishing unions altogether.

Anyone who didn't see it coming must have been in a coma, Walker said.

Union leaders insist they were blindsided.

"There wasn't any belief he was going to go for the nuclear option," said Gary Steffen, president of the Wisconsin Science Professionals, the union that represents state scientists, including crime lab analysts, biologists, chemists and foresters. "We expected concessions, but we just didn't think there was a mandate for this. We didn't see him getting rid of collective bargaining."

Union anger over the proposal set off a massive protest not seen in Madison since the Vietnam War era. Walker unveiled the bill on a Friday and four days later more than 10,000 people came to the Capitol in protest. By the end of the week, the ranks had grown to nearly 70,000, as schools closed around the state because teachers called in sick to join efforts to defeat the bill.

Assembly Minority Leader Rep. Peter Barca said Walker's goal was to "ram it through in less than a week to avoid scrutiny and discussion."

Walker has been in hyper-drive, calling the Legislature into special session the day he took the oath of office and asking them to pass tax cuts for businesses, make sweeping lawsuit reform and other changes. He got everything of consequence that he wanted.

The business tax cuts he pushed through added about $117 million to the projected two-year deficit, fanning anger among Democrats and unions that Walker argues he has to target public employees to balance the budget when he's found money for the tax breaks.

In an effort to slow down the union bill, Democratic senators skipped town on Thursday, delaying action in the state Senate indefinitely by leaving it one vote short of a quorum. The Assembly adjourned on Friday and didn't plan to take up the bill until at least Tuesday.

Labor leaders believe public anger at the bill will grow the longer their standoff goes and force concessions from Walker and Republican legislators. But Walker and Republican leaders in the Legislature say they have the votes they need to pass the bill with everything they want in it.

If anything, they say, the protests are only hardening support. Walker's office says he's getting 1,000 e-mails an hour, nearly all of which express support.

"There's a quiet majority out there who want us to do the right thing," Walker said. "This is bold politically, which is why there is all this attention, but it is still modest in terms of what we're asking in terms of our government employees."

The concessions amount to an 8 percent pay cut for the average worker.

Unions still could represent workers, but they could not force employees to pay dues and would have to hold annual votes to stay organized. Only wages below the Consumer Price Index would be subject to collective bargaining, anything higher would have to be approved by referendum.

In exchange for bearing more costs and losing bargaining leverage, public employees were promised no more of the layoffs or furloughs they've had to deal with for more than two years. The next forced unpaid day off was scheduled for Monday, Presidents Day, and state workers were sure to be out in force protesting at the Capitol.

Grebe, Walker's longtime friend, said he has been in regular contact with the governor since the protests started and he believes the activity is only reinforcing his belief the bill is the right way to go.

"I don't think it has affected his resolve at all," Grebe said. "He is committed to this."

Associated Press writer Todd Richmond contributed to this story.