It's All the Unions' Fault! Part V: The M&I And Associated Banks Edition

Remember how Scott Walker and WISGOP, both wholly owned subsidiaries of Koch Enterprises, tried to tell us that the current economic woes are because of those greedy union workers? Well than surely it couldn't be because there's a revenue problem due to them showering favors on their big money donors, like the banks, right?

Wrong:

The report shows Green Bay's Associated Bank paid no state income from 2000 to 2009, despite booking some $2.6 billion in profits over the period. 

It also shows Milwaukee's M&I Bank, which was sold recently to a Canadian bank, paid an effective tax rate of less than 1 percent on its boom years' profits. 

No wonder Wisconsin had a budget problem.

Gee, you think that maybe if you were telling campaign donors that they don't have to pay their taxes, maybe that could lead to a revenue problem, which in turn would lead to spending outpacing revenue?

It's not the unions that are the problem, it's Walker and his Republican legislative cronies who are sabotaging the state. That's the disease we need to cure with the only effective remedy: Recall.

It's All the Unions' Fault! Part IV (A) - M & I Edition: The Sequel*

Last night I wrote about the hypocrisy of people like Scott Walker blaming the unions for our economic woes while his supporters at M&I Bank were walking away with tens of millions of our tax dollars and without paying off the TARP money they took to supposedly help keep the economy afloat.

Today, the news broke about how their theft is really going to "help" the working people of the state:

About 475 employees, including 100 in the Milwaukee area, will lose their jobs in the wake of the acquisition of Marshall & Ilsley Corp. by the parent company of Harris Bank.

The job reductions will occur over the next four months, Jim Kappel, a spokesman for BMO Harris Bank, said Wednesday.

The M&I and Harris brand names will become BMO Harris when Toronto-based BMO Financial Group completes the integration of the two banks in about 18 months.

Kappel said close to half of the 100 people losing jobs in the Milwaukee area are expected to be offered jobs with one of BMO's vendors. The jobs are mostly in security and human resources.

Milwaukee-based M&I had about 4,300 employees in southeastern Wisconsin at the time the $4.1 billion acquisition proposal was announced last December. The transaction closed on July 5.

The other job reductions will take place across BMO's entire Midwest territory, and about 75 are related to the closing of 13 branches, including one in Wisconsin. BMO said those branch closings aren't a direct result of the merger, but had been planned by M&I and Harris before the acquisition.

Yuppers, it's the unions' faulth, right Scotty?

*Alternative title: Walker's Budget's Already At Work: Part Whatever

It's All the Unions' Fault! Part IV - M & I Edition

We all know the drill.

According to Scott Walker and his Republican allies, the state is broke and it's all because of those lousy union workers.  Except that we know better.

I wonder how Walker and company would explain this then:

Mark Furlong, who was president and chief executive officer of M&I and will continue in those roles at BMO Harris Bank, BMO's U.S. banking division, got $18 million when the acquisition was finalized and will be paid $6 million more a year from now, if he stays on.

Sixteen other executives, most of whom also are continuing with BMO Harris, will get a total of nearly $47 million in cash but will have to wait to get their money until they leave or their jobs end.

In addition, the entire executive team, including Furlong, will be able to cash in stock options that had not yet reached maturity, with a total value of $24 million.

That makes the payout package worth $95 million.

David Milstead, a columnist for The Globe and Mail newspaper in Toronto called the amount "generous" by both U.S. and Canadian standards.

Remember, it was M&I who received $1.7 billion in TARP funding, but only paid a relatively measly $25 million back until they were bought out by a Canadian bank, who ended up paying the balance.

In other words, the handful of bank executives who failed to keep their bank above water get to walk away with $95 million of our tax dollars, but it's the  person making $15 an hour to keep up the parks or the person getting $12 an hour to mop the floors of the Capitol building which is bankrupting the state.

If that doesn't make any sense to you either, remember that it was these same bank executives that threw money hand over fist into Walker's campaign.

In Fitzwalkerstan, the truth doesn't matter.  With enough graft, the truth can become whatever Walker and his supporters want it to be.