Politics & Government

Waukesha Mayor Calls for Employee Layoffs

Jeff Scrima calls idea "a plan and solution that we all can be proud of."

in an e-mail sent to members of the Common Council, is recommending the city layoff 17 employees to balance the 2012 budget with a tax freeze.

When Scrima’s proposal to implement a $136 garbage fee in addition to property taxes was shot down by members of the Finance Committee, the Common Council is looking to find ways to cut spending. Scrima had pushed for employees, who took a pay freeze in 2010 while increasing payments toward benefits in their current contract, to pay more toward health care and into their pensions.

Scrima noted in his e-mail that a bill signed by Gov. Scott Walker allows municipalities to modify compensation and benefits in existing contracts without canceling a bargaining unit’s contract. City union employees are under contract until the end of 2012.

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“We could then take the next 90 days under this bill to seek an agreement on a compromise with employees and bargaining units, and if such a compromise is reached the 17 employees that were laid off could be hired back,” Scrima wrote to the aldermen. “For a plan and solution that we all can be proud of!”


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