Posted on 02/19/2011 5:42:33 PM PST by Qbert
When Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker proposed making state employees pay more for health and pension benefits, one of his aides said the changes would cost the average worker roughly 8 percent of his or her salary.
Walker’s move so angered MSNBC-TV talk show host Ed Schultz that he came to Madison on Feb. 17, 2011 -- the day the Legislature was scheduled to vote on the proposals -- to air his show.
Two days earlier, Schultz claimed on "The Ed Show" the impact on state workers would be much greater than 8 percent. He said:
"People who earn $30,000, $40,000, $50,000 a year might have 20 percent of their income just disappear overnight."
Schultz hedged a bit by saying might. But the implication was the effect of Walker’s proposals would be to cut the income of large numbers of state workers by 20 percent.
Let’s see if he’s right.
Schultz said in the broadcast that he had been given figures that show a 20 percent impact. We asked his staff for that information and they said they would attempt to provide it. But as of publication, we have not heard from them.
Under the Republican governor’s plan, state employees would contribute 5.8 percent of their pay toward pensions and pay at least 12 percent of their health insurance premiums.
Meanwhile, we consulted other sources on how much more state workers would pay if the budget repair bill is adopted.
It’s a political debate, but this is largely a mathematical question.
Here’s what our sources said:
Carla Vigue, spokeswoman for the state Department of Administration: The higher contributions would amount to, on average, a 9.4 percent cut in take-home pay.
Joe Wineke, former administrator of the state Division of Compensation and Labor Relations and former chairman of the state Democratic Party: The impact on most workers would be 6.8 percent to 11 percent of their salary.
Walker spokesman Cullen Werwie: Detailed estimates are being prepared, but the cost to the average worker would be about 8 percent of their wages.
University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire Chancellor Brian Levin-Stankevich: In a memo, he said a UW-Eau Claire employee who earns $40,000 per year would pay an annual pension contribution of $2,320, up from $80; and an annual health insurance premium for family coverage of $2,820, up from $1,068. That’s a total of $3,992 per year, or 10 percent of that employee’s salary.
Under the plan, all employees would pay the same percentage of their income toward pensions.
But the larger health insurance payments would eat up a higher percentage of the income of low-income employees than of high-income employees.
So the total impact would vary on a percentage basis.
That said, the total impact, in terms of a percentage of income, would not vary widely, according to Wineke. The vast majority of state employees take the same so-called Tier 1 health coverage, he said.
Let’s return to the statement:
Schultz said Wisconsin state employees earning $30,000 to $50,000 per year "might have 20 percent of their income just disappear overnight" as a result of Walker’s proposals to boost state employee payments for health and pension benefits. It was a broad statement about the impact of the measures.
The sources we consulted indicate the range is 6.8 percent to 11 percent. Even if the higher payments comprise 20 percent of the income of some employees, there’s no indication it will be that high on a wide scale, particularly for state workers earning as much as $50,000 per year. If Schultz can provide evidence of a large-scale 20 percent impact, we’ll review this item.
But this is our rating: False.
Sgt. Shultz must use the same information sources that Rachel Maddow uses.
Shultz is your typical fatass, big mouth ignorant liberal.
Don’t mean to blow the thread, but who gives a turd about what Ed Schultz has to say?
I think they should lose 25% like I have!
Actually on an after-tax cash flow basis, he might be right. But even so, a 100k avg compensation with about 45% of that in benefits, many of that non-taxable, then that’s just too bad. Underworked, overpaid for decades .......so give 20% of it back, I don’t give a damn if it hurts their little bitty selves. People today are going 1-2+ years unemployed and getting jobs @ 20 -30% less than before.
So screw em.
That’s OK, because they can make up the difference by not paying union dues anymore and opting out of having dues deducted from their paychecks.
At least they can after this law passes.
No worker in the US should be held hostage to unions period, compulsory union dues are unconstitutional under the first and 14th amendments, and the unions need to be stripped of their ability to steal money from workers paychecks on a national level.
If the workers love unions so much they will be happy to voluntarily send them dues, there nothing patently illegal about a POTUS issuing an executive order immediately ending withholding of union dues nationwide.
Lets fight it out in the courts, and lets make it a campaign issue, with the promise to end compulsory withholding of union dues one of the first acts of the new GOP Administration.
Its stupid to allow the left(Communists) to use the same mechanism the IRS uses to fund themselves.
Maybe they should start stop voting for Democrats who raise there taxes and healthcare premium costs.
Boo...Effing...Hoo...
Let’s hope not, cuz I think she pulls ‘em out of her ass!
Yeah well it seems Sgt. Shultz goes to the same source, his I mean.
They should actually be thanking Gov. Walker for saving their jobs in the first place- some other teachers haven’t been as lucky.
Even if correcting for the nearly 4 Billion shortfall - that WI Government Employees lost 20% of their pay — so what - that is the price for believing in the ‘tooth fairy’ for so many years... Free pensions just do not happen ...
The State Union employees were sold a bill of goods by past State Administrations and State Legislatures... the Ponzi schemes the Unions bought into were just unsustainable lies foisted upon them by crooked politicians ...
FREE benefits and Free Pensions do not exist for tens of thousands of workers - they never did except in the minds of the crooks selling such and the naive union members who bought the LIE...
Now, if the Governor had any C.O.Jones' he'd offer the state employees the same standards applicable to federal employees.
What he's doing here is rather mamby-pamby and leaves a system in place that's too expensive.
They should lose 25% and more.
I pay approximately 1/3 of my pension for health insurance premiums. I have zero sympathy for these pigs.
No offense intended toward the humble pig, I do loves me some bacon!
Well, they are ahead of most of us small businesses who have lost 30-40% since we turned to marxism in 2008.
Crazy Ed...
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