Act 10 Has Been Very, Very Good To Me - But It Can Go Away Now

Act 10, Scott Walker's legacy legislation attacking public sector unions is being challenged again in the court system.  There's a very good chance that that unconstitutional law will finally be put out of our misery, especially now that justicehas been brought back to Wisconsin with the election of Justice Janet Protasiewicz.  

Right wingers, knowing that a major key to their reign of terror is about to end, are in a panic.  Their propagandists are spewing their thoroughly debunked numbers of how much money Act 10 allegedly saved, although Scott Walker testified, under oath, that Act 10 had no fiscal ramifications whatsoever.  

But, having been a Milwaukee County employee for over 24 years, I have a slightly different perspective than my fellow union members or from the right wing nut jobs.

Milwaukee County has a policy called the Rule of 75, which means that when a person's age and years of experience totaled to 75, they were eligible to retire with full benefits.  However, the Rule of 75 did not pertain to union members represented by AFSCME.  

When Walker and his fellow Republicons rammed through Act 10, the Milwaukee County Executive Chris "Walker-Lite" Abele immediately turned around and said Milwaukee County was no longer recognizing AFSCME and that considered its members to be non-represented employees.  

But by virtue of doing so, he automatically made 1,100 workers, including myself, eligible for the Rule of 75.  

Abele and the county board tried to deny this simple fact, which led to eight years of court battles between AFSCME and Milwaukee County.  Ultimately, the state supreme court sided with AFSCME, in a decision written by Rebecca Bradley - yes, THAT Rebecca Bradley!

Thus, five years ago today, I punched out for the last time, seven years ahead of when I was supposed to be eligible for retirement, as a Milwaukee County employee and have been enjoying my retirement ever since, along with our three dogs.

But that said, Act 10 has done a lot more damage than good.  Two very recent examples include the multiple inmate deaths at Waupun prison and the murder of a youth worker in Lincoln Hills.  And that's doesn't even include the Scottholes all over our roads, the soaring overtime costs in almost every department, the decrease in services that people depend on, and - well, this list is almost endless.

So, all in all, while Act 10 helped me and some of my coworkers out, it's long past time to finally get rid of that law that should never have been in the first place.

Chris Abele's Very Bad, Rotten, No Good Day

Milwaukee County Emperor Chris Abele spent the day Thursday touting a blog post from OnMilwaukee.com naming him as one of Milwaukee's 12 most important people.  I won't get into the fallacious reasoning behind that finding for now, outside of noting that he is right next to Scott Walker on that list.

The reason that Abele was pushing this was to try to control the damage he suffered the rest of the day.

Despite his best efforts to squash democracy once again, the Milwaukee County overrode three of Abele's vetoes regarding referendum questions that will appear on the ballot in November.  The questions are pertaining to whether the state should raise the minimum wage, whether the state should accept federal funds to expand BadgerCare and whether the state should change state laws to allow Milwaukee County to have a county administrator instead of a county executive.

Even though Abele claimed to support the first two items, he didn't support them enough not to veto them.  Abele has been studiously avoiding discussing the third question even though there is video of him saying he would support this.  

I have long advocated for getting rid of the county executive position.  The last three people who have held that position - Tom Ament, Scott Walker and Abele - have shown that this position is wide open to corruption and to the abuse of office.

Abele stuck to his tired line of it costing too much money to add a few lines of ink to the ballot.  Not many people believe that it would cost nearly as much as Abele is trying to claim.  And even if it did, it is small potatoes compared to the amount of money Abele has squandered all by himself, with nothing to show for it.

But even the triumph of democracy over plutocracy wasn't Abele's biggest problem of the day.

It was the Supreme Court's ruling upholding Act 10.  

One might think that Abele, being as anti-worker and anti-union as he is, would be elated at the ruling.  But the fact is that actually puts him in a hole due to 1,200 Milwaukee County employees suddenly becoming eligible for the Rule of 75, where they can retire once their age and years of service add up to 75.  That could cost as much as $60 million, money which he had earmarked for his rich friends for no bid contracts and sweetheart deals on county assets.

No wonder Abele felt the need to flee the state for a while.  He's had a very bad day and needed to get away for a while.