Monday, November 22, 2010

Dems Need To Finish Contract Negotiations

Goobernator-elect Scott Walker thinks he's going to be king and has tried to do all sorts of idiotic things within days of the election. One of the more ignorant and hubris-filled things was demanding that the state stop negotiating contracts with the unions.

This shows how little of a grasp on reality Walker has.

First of all, these contracts are for 2009-10. He was not governor during these years (Thank goodness) nor was he part of the state legislature. What right does he have to demand to rule over previous work done? It's not like he can go back and make the unions pay retroactively towards their pension or make them go back in time because he doesn't understand that furloughs are not the solution to budgetary woes.

And just by making this demand and trying to bully the state unions even before the election, he was interfering with the labor laws and setting up state tax payers for a big hit.

Fortunately, not everyone is falling down for His Majesty and is going on to actually do the people's work. The Democratic leaders in both the Assembly and the Senate have said that they are going to make a concerted effort to get the contracts done in special sessions before the end of the year.

They certainly better, for their sakes, the sakes of the workers and the sakes of the tax payers.

If they don't get the contracts done, they are going to lose a lot of supporters that they will need if they want to stay in office, much less regain power.

Secondly, the state workers have done the work for two years without a contract. They deserve to have that recognized and a clean slate for when Walker does take office.

Thirdly, if they don't get the contracts settled, any concessions that they might have made are going to be lost for years. Given his past history, when Walker gets to Madison, he'll start being a bonehead, putting his presidential aspirations before the people of the state, and offer up empty political rhetoric but make no efforts in saving tax payers money by settling a contract.

The reason he won't is twofold. One, he knows that he wouldn't be able to inflict the draconian measures he wants to, so it is easier to talk tough instead of just doing what needs to be done. Secondly, when he starts to fail at governing, and he will fail, just like he did in Milwaukee, he'll want the unions to use as a scapegoat.

In summary, if the Democrats know what is good for them and for the state, they will get this done before the end of the year. That are get used to always being in the minority.

7 comments:

  1. In reality it has more to do with how dire the situation in this state is! The Doyle administration and a Democratic controlled legislature have left WI with a higher per capita deficit than California! If this had happened in the old west Doyle would have been dragged out of his officer, tarred, feathered and run out of town on a rail! Still not a bad idea.

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  2. Walker would still be unable to enact retroactive cuts. This is just more grandstanding from a know-nothing.

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  3. Actually, in reality it does not matter if there is a contract with State employees or not. Walker is going to do whatever he can get away with. After he proposes and the legislature passes an unworkable budget, Walker will declare a fiscal emergency and grab powers that he should not have. Then he will impose furlough days on whatever state workers that he has not layed off and replaced with low wage employees working for private contractors. Just like he did with Milw. County workers.

    I guess that is one way to start on that 250,000 job promise. As long as you only consider the number of jobs created and don't consider the number of good jobs that pay a living wage that will be lost he may actually have a chance. Good for Walker, not so good for the guy that goes from a $30,000 income to a $12,000 a year income. But then again, Walker only promised to create jobs, he never said they would be good jobs.

    Wasn't Gov. Doyle pretty much cleaning up the mess that was left to him by Gov. Thompson and Scott McCallum?

    Hey, whatever happened to all that money that then Attorney General Doyle got for Wisconsin in that tobacco settlement? Oh yeah, that's right. Governor McCallum sold that off cheap for a quick fix of the budget that Thompson left him.

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  4. Just an FYI....the contracts are NOT even before the legislature yet as many of them are not yet finalized by the Doyle administration and the unions. Can't blame the legislature for what is not before them.

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  5. Contracts renewals or not. Walker will cut and rescind all those contracts. THE DAYS OF LAZY OVERPAID AND INEFFECIENT PUBLIC EMPLOYEES SOAKING THE TAXPAYERS OF WIS ARE OVER!!!!!!! Dems like you, Liebenthal, are a bunch of aristrocratic stuck up losers who think that socialism is the way to go. But look at Europe. Ireland, Spain, Portagul, Italy, and Greece have shown how liberialism (ie soclialism, communism, marxism) are complete Failures.

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  6. I know it's futile to ARGUE WITH ZEALOTS!!!! but one wonders: Exactly who are the INNEFFECIENT (sic - it's "inefficient" to most folks)PUBLIC EMPLOYEES? The health care workers at the Union Grove Center? How about the crime lab analysts? I know, they must be the technologists who do newborn screening. No? Maybe the Assistant District Attorneys? The professional engineers? Oh, never mind . . .

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  7. Perhaps Anonymous 10:10 still believes that the pixies will come out and spread their dust to make the roads magically plowed in the winter and repaired in the summer. That they will watch over the prisoners.

    Then he will wonder why his taxes are still going up as we pay more and more for the private agencies profit margins to remain excessive.

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