In a stunning move, the state Senate Wednesday night passed a revised version of Gov. Scott Walker's budget repair bill - without Democratic senators returning to vote on the measure.
Sen. Dale Schultz, R-Richland Center, cast the lone vote in dissent of the bill. The Democratic senators remained in Illinois and did not vote on the bill, which strips public unions' rights to collectively bargain for benefits.
For weeks, Senate Democrats have remained out of state to block a vote on the controversial measure. However, Republicans on Wednesday modified the bill so that it only needed a simple majority to pass — not the 20 votes that the original bill required.
The revised measure was approved by an 18-1 vote.
The bill is expected to be voted on by the GOP-controlled Assembly on Thursday. If approved, it would eliminate collective bargaining rights for most public employees and would require them to pay more of their health care and pension costs.
“The Senate Democrats have had three weeks to debate this bill and were offered repeated opportunities to come home, which they refused,” Walker said in a statement. “In order to move the state forward, I applaud the Legislature’s action today to stand up to the status quo and take a step in the right direction to balance the budget and reform government. The action today will help ensure Wisconsin has a business climate that allows the private sector to create 250,000 new jobs.”
The bill’s passage quickly drew the criticism of Senate Minority Leader Mark Miller, D-Monona, who issued a statement say that in 30 minutes, the 18 Republican senators who voted for the bill undid 50 years of civil rights in Wisconsin.
“Their disrespect for the people of Wisconsin and their rights is an outrage that will never be forgotten,” Miller said in the statement. “Tonight, 18 Senate Republicans conspired to take government away from the people.
“We will join the people of Wisconsin in taking back their government.”
Under the state legislation, collective bargaining is limited to wages for public unions. The wages can’t increase consumer price index-based cap, according to a news release from Walker. The cap could be exceeded by referendum.
The union contracts are limited to a year and wages frozen until new contract is settled.
Law enforcement, fire department personnel and state troopers and inspectors are not affected by the proposed legislation.
Other issues that are in the bill include requiring state employees to contribute 5.8 percent toward their pension and 12 percent toward their health care benefits. That move would save the state $30 million as it looks to plug a $137 million budget deficit by the end of June, according to the news release.
Schultz said in a prepared statement that he received tens of thousands of e-mails, thousands of phone calls and spent hours meeting with his constituents who told him they wanted two things.
“First, be inclusive by listening and working with your colleagues on both sides of the aisle to reach a compromise which addresses our fiscal crisis,” Schultz said. “Second, public employees are willing to make sacrifices on things like wages and benefits, but we need to preserve collective bargaining as a tool which has helped keep labor peace in this state for decades.
“Ultimately, I voted (with) my conscience, which I feel reflects the core beliefs of the majority of voters who sent me here to represent them.
“I look forward to working with my colleagues in the days ahead as we now need to join together to work through what promises to be a difficult budget.”
Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald, R-Juneau, said in a statement that the action take by the Senate followed the law after confirming the legality of the items in the bill with the Legislative Fiscal Bureau, the Legislative Council and the Legislative Reference Bureau.
“The people of Wisconsin elected us to come to Madison and do a job,” he said. “Just because the Senate Democrats won’t do theirs, doesn’t mean we won’t do ours.”
Sen. Mary Lazich (R-New Berlin) said she voted for the bill because “something needs to be done to balance the budget… and avoid large-scale layoffs of public employees.”
Passing the amended bill will prevent layoffs, Lazich said.
Lazich argued that the Democrats “ignored repeated efforts to negotiate on the bill.
But Democrats objected to the hastily scheduled vote and its sweeping impacts.
“In the dead of night and in less than 30 minutes, the Senate eviscerated over 50 years of collective bargaining and labor peace in this state,” said Sen. Fred Risser, a Democrat from Madison.
He questioned the legality of the vote, whether it violated state open meetings laws and said it amounted to “nothing more than an abuse of power.”
Sen. Julie Lassa, a Democrat from Stevens Point, called the vote a “truly sad night for Wisconsin democracy.”
“Deaf to the pleas of the overwhelming majority of Wisconsin citizens, Governor Walker and Republican legislators have demonstrated absolute contempt for the democratic process. They should be ashamed of themselves.”
A Green Bay senator, Dave Hansen, called his Republican counterparts “morally bankrupt” and predicted the move would lead to their ouster from office.
“Their actions are reckless, repulsive, unnecessary and mean-spirited,” Hansen said.
I am not saying teachers are not professional. I am talking about state workers having as many as seven different unions and a number of different bargaining units. The local she belongs to also covers probation and parole and P&P have different rights than the social workers. P&P have protected status like police officers and firefighters while the local's social workers do not. Sorry for the confusion and I will word it more carefully next time.
You really don't need to do these things as you're one of the few liberals that will actually try to use some facts and thoughtful arguments, but these other tactics are annoying and condescending.
I too am concerned about people misrepresenting themselves and I don't think I claimed to have been an economist. My degrees and business experience have given me some unique perspectives that is not normally heard in these types of discussions. I am not trying to sell anything but want people to look at the other side of things and move beyond their prejudices and biases. I'll let you know that my avocation is that of social philosopher and I look at public policy and politics as it impacts society. Personally I would much prefer a social democracy like those found in Northern Europe rather than what we are struggling with in the US. As a social democrat I am not troubled by some types of socialism in regards to public welfare. However, I also believe in the benefits of capitalism and constantly look at achieving a balance between the needs of people and retaining business productivity. I have the luxury that most don't have in as much as I can research and study full time. So when I say something keep in mind my socialist leanings, my ivory tower attitude to intellectual challenges and my basic enjoyment of a good discussion.
I depend on you and Bewildered and others to fully discuss the issues and I am not afraid to cede points when you have them. I strongly believe that we can come to consensuses when we fully air all different sides of a given issue. So much of the time we only see the world through our interpretation of reality and we are capable of being blinded by our prejudices and biases. I can't possibly have had your life's experiences and you can't have mine. You and others help me to look beyond my own interpretations and attempt to see your world. I hope I can do the same for you. This is a journey we all make together and we all have a vested interest. Just because someone doesn't see the world as I do, I will not condemn them, I value our shared humanity. I will fight to the death your right to be heard and to live your life free of tyranny, whether it comes from the left or the right.
I over generalized and the original statement was meant as not all public sector employees have to join unions as I clarified in subsequent posts. Thanks for pointing this out and I will be less general in the future. A number of my friends and relatives who are or have been teachers have indicated their displeasure at being forced to join the teacher's union and have the dues automatically pulled out. I do think it is an injustice and a loss of freedom.
I'll look forward to when you post again. I would enjoy an adult beverage with you. By the way I'm on facebook and we could chat there. Mazal Tov and Shalom Alechem. :}
You're right about a number of issues about the Scandinavian form of democratic socialism. They are homogeneous populations with similar lifestyles, mostly secular Lutherans, and a commitment to social justice. There populations are relatively small and I think all of the Scandinavian countries lumped together only have somewhere under 20 million. They are now experiencing problems with all the guest workers they invited in during the 60s and 70s. The Muslims have not assimilated well and are now a drain on the welfare state. One of the things I have looked at is service delivery between socialism and our system. Obviously they support their system through taxes and we use a combination of taxes and private payment. Several years ago I did some cost analysis and found that on average the Scandinavians, other than Norway with their oil money, pay around 63% to 65% in taxes. When I did a direct comparison between what we pay in taxes and direct payment it amazingly came out to about the same and the Scandinavians have far better programs. There is no comparison of a nation with a heterogeneous population the size of ours, but this is why I support single payer systems for healthcare and retirement for all. The history of the US is steeped in Calvinism and it may be impossible because of our lack of basic tolerance. I think we'll have to continue this conversation at another time.
We are not NY, NJ, CA, IL or any other state with an underfunded pension plan. According to such sources as Forbes Magazine, the WRS is solid and can cover their benefit obligations well into the future. Luckily we are not in a pay as you go and the principle remains untouched. The fund, I'm not sure of the totals, is somewhere around $72 billion and the annual payout is around $3 billion in benefits. There have been losses in the pension fund from poor returns on institutional investment losses with the Wall Street fiasco. I think you shouldn't have to worry about paying for "golden retirement" excesses. Also, with the program designed as it is, it is actuarially strong.
How will the teachers contribute to their retirement? Are they going to be contributing a lot more or do you think the districts will pick up the increases if any?
Truth be told, our teachers are under an existing contract till 2012-13 ( signed last year), so they won't have increased contributions till then. Makes budgeting the 2011-12 budget tough. Nice to see you back online, Lyle
messages when typing and it's " self-correcting" mode drives me nuts. Reading my messages is like playing "Wheel of Fortune".... Buy a vowel and fill in the blanks. By way. Lyle, nice to see you back on line!
A 2010 report by the conservative Manhattan Institute says the Wisconsin system is funded at only 72 percent, while teachers’ pensions are running an unfunded liability of about $10.9 billion. David Wirtz of the Federal Reserve Board puts the funding figure – at 88 percent. Wisconsin took out a loan of $950M in 2003 to supplement its pension. It is currently paying 6.5% interest rate on that loan, if the market rate of return on the $950M does not exceed 6.5% we will lose money on the deal and our % funding drops. We've seen similar issues in Waukesha & WFB with bad investments. Most public-sector plans apply asset growth projection rates to their investment portfolios, typically assuming an 8 percent return over time; Wisconsin sets its rate of return at 7.8 percent. The problem is, it’s utterly unsustainable and private sector pensions would never get away with that. That’s why Wisconsin and the three other “fully funded” states will likely join the 46 remaining states in the seriously underfunded category, if they haven’t already (and weren’t always). We should not blame public sector employees for these issues; however, it shows the pitfalls with the public pension system. It's time to start a transition to a 401K type system to allow young employees to plan far in the future and avoid false promises.
I don't doubt what you say is true about the funding levels. However, I am very wary of switching over to a 401(k) type instrument. After what I've seen and experienced over the last ten years the 401(k) has proven to be a disaster. If I am not mistaken didn't the state have to take out the loan to replace the funds that Tommy raided? People have proven, myself included, not very adept at managing their 401(k) programs. I think there has to be other ways to create a program, perhaps a super social security system that is not a supplemental but primary single retirement system.
Now we are getting into the meat of the issue. Government and the public has been betting the house on the economy continuing to grow. I don't know many people I have known who have rationalized their irrational financial behavior based on the assumption that the economy could recede, but they could afford the risk because everything would come back bigger and better than before. In reality real middle class spendable income has been steadily declining since 1980. People have gone on a credit binge to make up for the lack of real income growth in order to support their addiction to consumerism. This aversion to staying within our means has created a situation where we want government services and security but we don't want to pay for them (taxes). For over a decade any politician saying they want to raise taxes to pay for services, is quickly shuttled out the door. I think it is time that we become grown ups and face the music and stop thinking strictly about the me and instead think about the we. We can't cut everything so we'll have to step up and start paying for it.