Mass Protests Over WI Governor's Controversial Budget Repair Bill

http://www.cnn.com/2011/POLITICS/02/16/w...index.html

(CNN) -- Furor over a bill that would strip Wisconsin public employees of most of their collective bargaining rights and have them pay dramatically more for benefits drew at least 10,000 protesters to the state Capitol on Wednesday and forced the cancellation of classes in one large school district because of a teacher sick-out.

Republican Gov. Scott Walker said he is dealing with a budget crisis. Employees and unions contend his bill is an assault on worker rights.

Walker is asking legislators to pass his "Budget Repair Bill" to combat a $137 million shortfall through June 30. An upcoming two-year budget for 2011-13 must address a pending $3.6 billion deficit, he said.

In a budgetary scenario being played out in other cash-strapped states and municipalities, the legislation requires workers to cover more of their health care premiums and pension contributions, although supporters say local governments will decide on health care contributions for their employees.

The legislation also requires collective bargaining units to conduct annual votes to maintain certification. Unions would lose the right to have dues deducted from worker paychecks and collective bargaining can only cover wages.

The bill has prompted protests from public employees and supporters. On Tuesday, an estimated 13,000 people thronged Tuesday to the Capitol, followed by 10,000 Wednesday, said Carla Vigue, spokeswoman for the Department of Administration.

Unions said the number of protesters was much higher.

"I appreciate the fact that the folks here today will have a chance to have their voices heard," Walker told reporters Wednesday. "But I want to be sure the taxpayers of Wisconsin will have their chance to have their voices heard."

"Calling this a budget bill is a smokescreen," said Bryan Kennedy, president of AFT-Wisconsin, which represents about 17,000 employees. "This is an attack on all labor organizations."

Sign-carrying protesters jammed the Capitol rotunda on Tuesday and Wednesday, chanting "Kill the bill" and "Workers Unite." Thousands more marched outside in the snow.

The governor, who took his campaign for the bill to his Twitter account, said he was talking with some legislators about protections for workers.

Walker's press secretary, Cullen Werwie, said he expects the measure to reach the Senate on Thursday and, possibly, the Assembly (lower chamber) on Friday. Both chambers are controlled by Republicans, but the legislation likely faces a tougher test in the Senate.

Under the bill, public employees in the Wisconsin Retirement System would pay about 5.8% of their salaries toward pensions, up significantly from 0.2%, Werwie said. And state workers would pay for 12.6% of their monthly health care premiums, up from between 4% and 6% percent.

Pay raises would be limited to inflation, unless a referendum approves of a larger increase.

"This is not something unusual," Walker said of the employee contributions. "That is what middle-class workers in this state have experienced."

The legislation would save the state about $30 million between now and the end of June and, if continued, an estimated $300 million during the next two years, Walker has said. He said workers in the private sector pay higher percentages of their pay for health care and pensions.

The governor visited private businesses on Tuesday, arguing the bill would end furloughs and prevent layoffs.

"People viewed what we are proposing as modest," he said.

The changes do not apply to police, firefighters and state troopers, who would continue to bargain for their benefits.

But the proposed curtailing of most collective bargaining rights among public employees has drawn the most vocal complaints. There are about 300,000 state and local workers in the heavily unionized state.

Of 425 primary and secondary school systems, for example, employees at all but two are covered by AFT-Wisconsin or the National Education Association, Kennedy said.

Walker, he said, is ignoring $100 million in previous employee concessions and wants to take his measure directly to a vote rather than negotiate.

Calling Wisconsin a "state in turmoil," Kennedy said the debate is "not a financial issue. It is about worker rights."

His group is calling for more rallies on Thursday to "keep the pressure on."

The website for the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees featured a video of interviews with union workers.

"This is the state where collective bargaining for public employees started," one said. "If Wisconsin falls, so does the nation."

Ken Syke, a spokesman for the Madison Metropolitan School District, said about 40% of 2,600 teachers, assistants, social workers and psychologists in the bargaining unit called in sick, forcing the district to cancel Wednesday's classes for 24,500 students.

Because of the budget imbroglio, the district warned teachers that they would be docked pay if they were sick Wednesday through Friday and returned without a note from a medical provider, Syke said. They may face other sanctions.

Although Superintendent Daniel A. Nerad wrote Walker, asking him to return to the table to discuss collective bargaining, he also has said "our No. 1 responsibility is to instruct students," Syke said.

Some students left school Tuesday to join the protests, the spokesman said.

Many states, including California and New York, are grappling with budget deficit crises.

A month after Illinois lawmakers approved a massive tax increase, Gov. Pat Quinn on Wednesday unveiled a $35.4 billion budget that depends on state lawmakers approving $8.7 billion in new borrowing largely to clear a towering stack of unpaid bills.

The budget, which increases spending by $1.7 billion from the previous year and closes a $13 billion gap, slashes programs for the elderly, the poor and the disabled, but leaves education funding largely untouched. No layoffs of state workers are suggested.

An awesome NY Times slideshow:

http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2011/02...SIN-6.html

I'm living and contributing in the middle of this as an executive board member of our College Democrats of Madison chapter. Things are intense here. I'd be happy to report as much as people would like.

Sweet. Anything big planned for the days ahead?

What is your proposed alternative to combat your state's bad financial situation?

Sweet. Anything big planned for the days ahead?

Let's just say I have never received as many Facebook event invitations in one week. The bill was announced Friday, protesting began Monday, and is expected to continue going full steam as it has through tomorrow. Tonight is the second night in a row thousands are sleeping at the capitol in order to testify as part of a citizen filibuster of the bill. I slept there last night. It was awesome, but roughed up my whole day today.

What is your proposed alternative to combat your state's bad financial situation?

If I can find the news article again, it would be to rework financial structuring. There was some article I read yesterday about how the governor himself already stated financial restructuring would cover $165 million of the $167 million that needs to be covered.

There's a lot more I could say, but I need to go do pomegranate if I still want to be on top of my studies and protest tomorrow. Bleh. I'll respond more later if people have other questions.

Well, as long as you're not protesting without a valid alternative. People who do that really piss me off.

Any sign of the National Guard yet?
http://www.deathandtaxesmag.com/53725/wi...n-mubarak/

Aside from that, I'm not an expert on Wisconson and that is your business, but what I oppose here and what I have a strong opinion on is that the military should never be used on the people it is meant to protect.

If I can find the news article again, it would be to rework financial structuring. There was some article I read yesterday about how the governor himself already stated financial restructuring would cover $165 million of the $167 million that needs to be covered.

There's a lot more I could say, but I need to go do pomegranate if I still want to be on top of my studies and protest tomorrow. Bleh. I'll respond more later if people have other questions.

This issue that state goverments are having is a tough one for me to take a hard stance on. Currently, I believe that the financial restructuring that you are talking about will only fix the issue for the short term. States are going to have to make really tough budget cuts to solve thier budget issues for the long term. There needs to be a combination of financial restructuring and reasonable cuts in state employee benifits. IMO state employee pension plans are crazy. Hardly any public companies these days offer pension plans, so I think the states are behind the times with pension benifit reform.

Like I said, this is a really tough issue. Cutting benifits will negatively affect many people which no one wants to see.

With all that being said, I admire you for protesting for what you believe! Keep up the fight.

You know what else solves budgeting issues? Raising taxes...

@AnonymousMoose: No sign of them yet. That's definitely the most chilling aspect of this entire debacle.

To clarify for others, our governor also said on Friday that, basically, if vital public employees to various communities went on mass strikes in opposition to the passage of the bill, if it passes, he would use the National Guard to "maintain order." Because clearly stripping working class citizens of their rights in the workplace and then forcing them continue their jobs under threat of arrest or worse is democracy at its finest.

@peachenCamero: The main issue here is the assault on the rights in the work place of public employees. As Obama said yesterday when he addressed the tensions in Wisconsin, this bill appears to be an attempt to disrupt unions. He added that in times like these people need to come to terms with "hard financial realities," and provided an anecdote about his two year salary freeze for federal employees. That's a viable, long-term option for dealing with employees. Stripping them of rights they've had for over 50 years is not. Such a fix would be short term as well, as in the long run you risk massive issues, such as, to name a few, working professionals quitting their jobs and leaving the state.

You know what else solves budgeting issues? Raising taxes...

Taxing people that are already barely able to make ends meet isnt exactly the best idea. Sure, you might be able to get some more money into the state at first, but that wont last long. Taxes, when too high, choke the economy. Then some people that are living paycheck to paycheck might be pulled into a spiral of debt from the increased taxes or those people might simply stop spending as much money. It'll hurt the economy, people's lives, and result in potentially less tax revenue.

What most states need to do is cut spending. Although, that brings the question of "what should we cut?" Some of us might simply have to bite the bullet and give up some luxuries we once had. That's life. Although maybe not if we cut the right programs and cut the right forms of spending.
Now, what to cut should be up to the citizens of Wisconson, but I'm certain you could easily find some obscene bullpomegranate to cut. Just looking at governments, they tend to overpay on everything (I'm thinking of how the Feds might pay a $1000 per chair...). One step would obviously be to frugal and force the government to not overpay. Then of course, we need to watch out for governments paying for private interests. For example, it would probably be best to oppose building private sports stadiums with tax payer money.
Now, I dont know exactly what sorts of bull goes on in Wisconson, but I'm certain the government is wasting money.

Now, back to the proposal of cutting benefits of workers. This is the one thing I can say for certain. The governer and the congress of Wisconson should be willing to cut their own benefits before they cut other people's benefits.
In fact, since they want to cut teacher benefits, I think that they should all have to work in a building similar to that of a school, with similar funding to a school and work at desks commonly used by high schoolers before they cut school related funding.

Anyway, looks like RT has some video coverage of the event.
[video=youtube;TrRN9UWgISE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TrRN9UWgISE&feature=player_embedded[/video]

That footage is old, like from Tuesday. I recognize the union semi-truck on one of the outside streets from that afternoon (which also means I'm somewhere in the middle of the ground floor rotunda in the first few seconds). pomegranate's gotten more intense since then: thousands more protesting, people sitting in on all levels to barricade the senate chamber doors, etc. The police are awesome and on our side, though. The Republican legislators tried leaving for lunch and asked for a police escort, and the police refused. Instead, they've been handing out brats to protesters outside.

Also, at 11:45 am CST the Democratic senators left the state, effectively shutting down the state senate by preventing quorum. In response, Governor Scott Walker sent state troopers after them. Which, of course, has made all protesters here that much more riled up. It's insane.

Also, at 11:45 am CST the Democratic senators left the state, effectively shutting down the state senate by preventing quorum. In response, Governor Scott Walker sent state troopers after them. Which, of course, has made all protesters here that much more riled up. It's insane.

I just read that on CNN. Boy, what a dumbf'uck of a governor Wisconsin has. >_> (excuse my swearing)

At least Jerry Brown, governor of California, is dealing with our budget issues by taking a step-by-step approach, not a rash, one-shot solution.

I just read that on CNN. Boy, what a dumbf'uck of a governor Wisconsin has. >_> (excuse my swearing)

No one minds. That governer deserves it.

And if that footage is old, I'll attempt to find more recent footage. I just recently began looking into this issue.

Edit: I just hope we dont get another Kent State shooting.

A Kent State repeat is my fear as well. However, thankfully, no federal forces have shown up, and all state police are on our side. I just read from friends still at the capitol that the state police refused to hunt down and extradite the senators, with local police, again, being awesome like I described above.

And no worries about the recent footage. There's so much to sort through you can just type appropriate keyword in YouTube and a lot will pop up. This is a good video to start with for some footage:

http://www.cnn.com/video/data/2.0/video/...e.cnn.html

sigh why does walker have to be stupid?

I'm currently hating where i live

A Kent State repeat is my fear as well.

If the governor even dares to do that...he's screwed. For good.

Why don't they just raise taxes and raise the amount of taxes wealthy people pay?

I wish I could be there, just for the sense of being apart of something. I really hope you guys pull through and get a good governor. Our's doesn't seem too bright yet.

Why don't they just raise taxes and raise the amount of taxes wealthy people pay?

Have you ever taken basic economics? Surely you must know that taxing is not the answer to all government money questions. And over-taxing the wealthy can have extremely detrimental effects on the economy, plus it's lolWisconsin, what wealthy?

Take a look at the Laffer Curve-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laffer_curve

I attend a Wisconsin public high school, so this has been the topic of discussion all week. All my teachers are pretty angry about it, and quite a few of them have attended protests. I live near Milwaukee, so as intense as it is here, I'm guessing it's exponentially crazier closer to Madison...

The fact that the bill does not apply to police, firefighters, and state troopers bothers me. Is Scott Walker saying those professions are more important than teachers and other labor workers? There really can be no definite proof of one's worth over another, so I think it's extremely arbitrary and unfair. This bill is blatant stripping of rights, so if passed it will definitely be challenged in the WI Supreme Court.

Scott Walker is an idiot. He didn't even graduate college. >_>