Posted on 02/16/2011 4:41:18 AM PST by Diana in Wisconsin
MADISONTAN – Early Tuesday morning at UWM in Milwaukee, graduate assistant Lee Abbott boarded a Madison-bound bus. He is worried about paying more for health care under Governor Scott Walker’s Budget Repair Bill.
“On our salaries that we get paid here, we would not be able to afford them for our two children,” Abbott told TODAY’S TMJ4 reporter Tom Murray.
Abbott joined thousands of city, county and state workers in Madison.
“Let our message of fairness and equity be heard,” a speaker told an assembled crowd estimated at over 10,000 outside the Capitol.
It was a huge organized labor rally. Public employees fear benefits will be slashed and their right to collectively bargain will be revoked.
Chanting “kill the bill,” hundreds of union workers and their supporters moved into the rotunda.
Among the crowd, Wendy McQuistion, a 2nd grade teacher at Edgerton Elementary in the Whitnall School District. She contends teachers have already made sacrifices and are compensated below private sector rates.
"We have given salary concessions in an attempt to keep language, in an attempt to keep benefits,” McQuistion said.
She lives in the district represented by State Senator Mary Lazich (R- New Berlin), who contends public employees will still be better off than most in the private sector.
“This is a job protection bill in the sense that these people are still going to have their jobs,” Lazich said. “Yes, they're going to have to contribute a little bit to pension and a little bit more to health care, but they're still going to have their jobs."
Teachers, highway workers and government office staffers from across Wisconsin hoped if they were big enough and loud enough, they could persuade Republicans to change their minds.
"This is a direct assault on myself and every other employee,” said Christine Hallen, a Milwaukee County juvenile probation officer.
Milwaukee County plow driver Jeanette Balistrieri believes this week could be so pivotal in the state's history, she pulled her son out of school to be with her Madison.
"We make less money and we're of higher education the people in private sector,” she argued.
Rep. Mark Honadel (R-South Milwaukee) could certainly hear the voices from his office, but they are unlikely to change his support for Walker's budget plan.
“They are going to pay a little more for their health care, but by golly, they're still going to have a pension, unlike 80% of my friends in the private sector who lost their business or their company went belly up,” Honadel said.
Both sides are presenting studies that they contend support their positions.
Wisconsin AFL CIO leaders pointed to an Economic Policy Institute study that shows a public employee with a bachelors degree earns, on average, about $20,000 less in total compensation than someone with the same education working in private industry.
A Republican lawmaker’s staff countered with a Cato Institute study that shows state and local workers receive, on average, $39.66 per hour in total in compensation. That study showed private sector workers in similar positions earned $27.42 for an hour’s work.
Seen Greta talk to the Governor and wow, they are coming close to blows, between him and the state unions.
"We make less money and we're of higher education the people in private sector,” she argued.
And we be more literate, too.
If true, maybe it's because the private schools she is talking about have their choice of who they want to hire, and therefore they hire those who warrant higher compensation based on their achievements and productivity as teachers.
I don't hear government employees complaining about unfairness when they are making more money than the private sector, which is common.
Miss Unionpants needs a reality check on what’s going on in the world around her. She needs to figure out that nobody is forcing her to stay in her cushy public position. If she is so miserable she should take upon herself to seek improved circumstances.
Civil service was known to pay less than the private sector, in some cases. But, the guarantee of a job and the benefits made up for that - supposedly. Now, it’s cadillac benefits, a guaranteed job and salaries that rival and surpass the private sector. In addition, the public union pacs buy candidates that keep the monster growing. Scott Walker is on the right track by trying to reduce the power of the public unions.
Seems that the other option to this bill was to fire 6000 state employees and remove thousands from public assistance.
May as well just do that now and state that the unions forced you into that action.
Let’s see how the union takes care of ‘workers’ who are no longer employed
According to the story this was a plow driver making this statement.
"We make less money and we're of higher education the people in private sector,” she argued.
So Milwaukee county has the best educated plow drivers? Seems that any Joe off the street could be trained to drive a plow in about 10 minutes. Contract the whole thing out and save the money spent on "plow drivers"
I see Prosser won the SC primary. Thats a good thing. These union whiners won’t find a sympathetic ear on the bench when they go to sue the state over these proposals.
Should a Math PhD get paid more if he's flipping burgers?
What's your degree in? Womyn's studies?
Agreed.
In Wisconsin, most public school teachers can retire at age 55 and have pensions that pay them 50,000 to 100,000 per year.
I do not want to pay for those crazy benefits anymore.
Well, if the private sector is so much better then quit your govt job. Problem solved.
The teachers I know in private schools in Wisconsin earn about 80% of what a new graduate earns in a public school. There may be some private schools that pay as well or better than public schools, but they are few and far between
Many experienced public school teachers earn $60,000 to $100,000 and can retire in their 50’s with full pensions.
The Muni Debt Crisis in 4 Paragraphs
John Ellis | Feb. 15, 2011, 4:28 PM | 1,091 | 6
From the testimony of Northwestern University’s Joshua Rauh yesterday before the US House Subcommittee on Courts, Commercial, and Administrative Law:
“....just as companies have ways of issuing debt off their balance sheets, state and local governments have ways around the balanced-budget rules. The most pervasive means of circumventing balanced budget requirements at the state and local level has been to promise public employees pensions without setting aside adequate funds to meet the promises. The bill then is left to future taxpayers when the employees retire and collect their checks. By that time, the politicians who made the promises are long out of office. In some cases, the bills will be so large that the ability of state and local governments to operate will be threatened. Some states will likely seek federal assistance.
The state and local pension crisis in the U.S. reflects the fact that unfunded pension liabilities are the largest loophole in balanced budget pledges. When politicians have spent money without raising taxes, pensions have proven the perfect borrowing vehicle. The Government Accounting Standards Board (GASB) has been complicit in this hidden borrowing by allowing a form of accounting for these promises that violates the principles of financial economics.
This hidden debt will eventually force states and localities to choose among the unpalatable options of cutting services, raising taxes, attempting to reduce benefits owed to public employees, defaulting on other obligations, or seeking a federal bailout. The best hope for a soft landing for states is to focus on measures that stop the growth of unfunded liabilities, and then attempt to renegotiate the most untenable pension obligations within the allowable state legal structures.
If states perceive implicit federal backing, they may lack the incentives to undertake these fundamental reforms. If the federal government is interested in limiting the liability of federal taxpayers to bailouts, it should provide states with those incentives by conditioning the availability of federal money on pension reforms that limit off balance sheet borrowing. Urgent action is required to ensure that federal taxpayers will not be the ultimate underwriters of state debts.”
“And do we really need highly educated “plow drivers?”
Yes, if they’re plowing at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
They’ll know the cars driven by Marxist professors and can bury the vehicles in buckets of snow.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.