No Runny Eggs

After two hours of contentious debate, punctuated by lame attempts by the Democrats to stall the inevitable, the Assembly passed the budget repair bill on a 53-47 vote. It now goes to Governor Walker for his signature, and he said he will sign it as soon as he he is legally able to. That time frame is a question of how quickly the Assembly Clerk and the Legislative Reference Bureau can enroll the bill and present it to Walker for his signature.

(H/T – Kevin Binversie)

The Wisconsin State Journal reported just this morning that WEAC is urging school boards to rush through contracts effective through 2013 before Scott Walker is able to sign the soon-to-be-passed budget repair bill that severely restricts collective bargaining priviliges for public unions. Meanwhile, the Wisconsin Association of School Boards is urging caution for its members, pointing out that even though the generalities of how the significant reduction in shared revenue are known, the specifics are still up in the air, and that it is unwise to lock themselves into two-year contracts.

Of note, the Madison story has a number the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel did not have last week – 50-100 school districts rammed through contract extensions the last 2 weeks. While the WSJ notes that WEAC is now asking its locals to accept concessions, the early contract extensions, including the one in Racine, did not contain any.

After weeks of being held hostage and lied to by the Fleebag Fourteen Senate Democrats, and ultimately told that the only way the Dems would be coming back was if they were allowed to unconditionally win, the Brothers Fitzgerald had enough and figured out a way to do the budget repair bill without the 20-Senator requirement for a bill that is fiscal in nature. After passing the substitute amendment through a conference committee (which, for those of you out of state, means that it cannot be altered in any way), the Senate Republicans passed it through their chamber, which is still lacking the 14 Democrats, on a party-line 18-1 vote, with Dale Schultz (WEAC-No Talk Radio Here) being the lone dissenter. The bill will now reportedly go to the Assembly tomorrow, with the Assembly starting up at 11 am.

JR Ross at WisPolitics did a quick comparison between the version that previously came out of the Joint Finance Committee, which was stalled by the Fleebag Fourteen, and the version that came out of the conference committee:

These items were removed from the JFC version:
-changes to the earned income tax credit
-a $79 million reduction in the lapses required from the DOA secretary
-$165 million in debt restructuring
-increasing funding for MA programs to close funding gap through end of fiscal year
-the sale of state power plants (emphasis added)
-increasing funding for Corrections to close gap through end of fiscal year
-reallocation of group health and pharmacy benefit reserves
-audit of dependent eligibility under benefit programs

For those wondering about the potential 1,500-state-worker layoffs slated for April if nothing were done, do not quote me, but judging by the differing gross closing balances ($65,115,300 in the JFC version, $158,853,200 in the conference version, both including a $65,000,000 required statutory balance), it looks like they won’t be necessary.

The Democrats appear to be pinning their last hopes on the short notice provided for the conference committee. However, the provision in state law that generally requires a 24-hour notice also allows for that notice to be as short as 2 hours if there is “good cause such notice is impossible or impractical”. That has never been adjudicated, but in Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald’s statement, he said that the Legislative Reference Bureau, which includes non-partisan lawyers hired for the speicific purpose of helping legislators draft bills, effectively signed off on the bill.

Revisions/extensions (10:40 pm 3/9/2011) – Via WisPolitics’ Budget Blog, here is what Senate Chief Clerk Rob Marchant had to say about the short notice provided for the conference committee meeting:

There was some discussion today about the notice provided for the legislature’s conference committee. In special session, under Senate Rule 93, no advance notice is required other than posting on the legislative bulletin board. Despite this rule, it was decided to provide a 2 hour notice by posting on the bulletin board. My staff, as a courtesy, emailed a copy of the notice to all legisaltive (sic) offices at 4:10, which gave the impression that the notice may have been slightly less than 2 hours. Either way, the notice appears to have satisfied the requirements of the rules and statutes.

I thought you might find this information to be useful.

Thanks.

Rob

Revisions/extensions (7:08 am 3/11/2011) – I probably should have caught this when WisPolitics did and before Kevin Binversie started sending people here, but the LFB changed their summary on Thursday morning to note that the potential sale of the state power plants and a change in the Earned Income Tax Credit, not discussed in the Wednesday summary, were part of the bill, and that a “Study of Potential Modifications of the Wisconsin Retirement System and State Employee Health Insurance Options”, which was discussed by the LFB, was not part of the bill. Importantly, LFB director Bob Lang noted that the bill language itself remained the same throughout the process, which means that what the conference committee, the Senate, and the Assembly voted on was, to the letter and punctuation, the same.

Jim Hoft received some information on a Wausau branch of WEAC-led boycott of businesses that refuse to kowtow to them, and indeed in some cases, actively supported Scott Walker. Included are both the list of businesses displayed in the teachers’ lounge at a Wausau high school and copies of two different form letters to be delivered to non-complying businesses. This is after the local TV station (WSAW-TV, Channel 7) refused to run with the story after being fed it first.

Bonus item – The Wausau Tea Party got their hands on the “Wisconsin-as-a-fist” signs being doled out by the thugs from both the Wisconsin AFL-CIO and the Rock Netroots.

Now I’m off to gas up at Kwik-Trip, grab lunch at Culver’s, and get a dinner of Johnsonville brats and Sargento cheese from Walmart.

(H/T – Kevin Binversie)

The lone independent in the Assembly and Manitowoc County Executive Bob Ziegelbauer penned a column for the Manitowoc Herald Times-Reporter yesterday:

Total compensation — wages plus fringe benefits — for public sector employees has been out of whack for long a time. It’s a systematic problem, one we can’t ignore.

When the economy went down, state and local government kept spending as if everything was normal. But, the truth is that when things went bad, nearly everyone in the private sector took a big, permanent, financial hit almost immediately and are only now working their way back.

Public sector employees were protected from the pain by continuing tax increases, mediation arbitration and the political power of their unions. As unemployment got worse, the gap between their total compensation and the rest grew farther apart. Now, we need to adjust, to realign that as soon as possible. The longer we wait, the harder it will be.

Reality is going to hit home tomorrow, as the FY2012-FY2013 budget is expected to have over $1 billion in cuts to shared revenue.

Christian Schneider grabbed a spot at NRO’s Corner and explained what the fights in Wisconsin, Indiana and Ohio are all about for Da Unions and Da Rats:

But to say these protests are merely about collective-bargaining rights is to say The Godfather is a movie about Italian food.

Since the early 1970s, public-sector unions have been a powerful political force in Wisconsin, as they are in many states. The unions collect dues from their members (up to $1,100 per member per year), which they then use to elect members sympathetic to their causes. In the last two elections, the state’s largest teachers’ union spent $3.6 million supporting their candidates.

Walker has attempted to change that framework, allowing government workers to opt out of paying union dues — which, he has said, he thinks may offset the increased health and pension contributions he’s asking of employees.

And it is this provision that has the unions most up in arms. They know that, given the option, many of their members would choose not to write out a check for union dues. This, in turn, would strangle their election spending, leaving them scrambling for funds and, consequently, influence.

Christian went on to explain how MPS’s decision to acquiesce to MTEA demands in the mid-1970s to pay retiree health care benefits (ultimately a major contributor to the demise of General Motors and Chrysler as private entities) led to an unfunded actuarial liability of over four times the district’s entire annual $1 billion-plus budget, which, if fully-funded on an annual basis, would represent a full 20% of said budget.

WisOpinion has a copy of an op-ed penned by former Senate “Republican” “leader” Dale “No Talk Radio Here” Schultz saying he will introduce an amendment restoring full collective bargaining rights after June 30, 2013. Not-so-coincidentally, June 30, 2013 just happens to be the end date of the series of the next-to-be-negotiated WEAC contracts, and the changes in bargaining rights (including yearly contracts) don’t apply to contracts already entered into. I guess that $500 WEAC PAC gave Schultz last year, along with the $1,000 they gave him in 2006 and $1,000 in 2002, the only significant money to go to an individual Republican lately from WEAC, just might have had something to do with that knife in the back. I don’t think Schultz, whose last major action was to torpedo the Taxpayer Protection Amendment, is bright enough to use that as bait to lure a couple of Dems back to Wisconsin.

First, I must apologize for not having audio. I thought I was recording, but I somehow lost it. In any case, after the counter-rally, I ran into state Sen. Frank Lasee (R-De Pere), and did a quick interview with him. What follows is a short summary as the audio disappeared:

What the budget repair bill means for unions: They’ll have to kick in some of their take-home pay for pensions, roughly 5.8%, and pay 12% of their health-insurance premiums. They’ll also lose the right to collectively negotiate for anything other than base bay. The generous sick-day provisions won’t change one iota, and except for some less-than-full-time employees, who will gain some civil service protection, the civil service protection will remain fully in place.

Why the reduction in collective bargaining abilities is necessary: The unions, once governmental leadership changes, will simply bring back no employee payments toward pensions, very-limited payments toward health insurance. Indeed, unions that have contracts coming up are renewing them now so that the provisions of the budget repair bill won’t kick in until later.

What can be done to bring back the missing Democrat State Senators: As long as they’re out of the state, pretty much nothing.

What can be done by the Senate as long as the Democrats are out: Depending on how long they’re out, the Republicans may well move on other issues. They might also split the limits on collective bargaining out of the budget repair bill, deem it as not fiscal in nature, and move on that. Lasee hopes they’ll return soon.

In closing, Lasee said that the budget repair bill will be passed in full.

There’s three of them:

• First things first, Dave Westlake, American Majority and Americans for Prosperity will be having a rally on the east side of the Capitol at noon. They put together an all-star lineup, from Vicki McKenna to Jim Hoft of Gateway Pundit, from Herman Cain to Andrew Breitbart, from AFP head Tim Philips to American Majority head Ned Ryun. I strongly suggest getting there early, bring your video cameras, and be nice. While some of the organizers of the lefty rallies have publicly told their supporters to not engage us, I don’t exactly trust their words (I’ll get to that in a bit).
• Item #2 – Recalls have been announced against absent state Senators Jim Holperin and Bob Jauch. Those of you down in the Kenosha area and in northeast Wisconsin, expect to see recall petitions circulated shortly.

  The short version of how partisan office recalls work in Wisconsin for those of you who either don’t remember or aren’t from Wisconsin:

  • An officeholder who has held office for at least a year since the last election is eligible for recall. On the state partisan level, that means only the state Senators in even districts, who were last elected in 2008, are eligible to be recalled at this point.
  • Organizers have 60 days from the time they register with the appropriate election officials (in this case, the Government Accountability Board), to circulate petitions in the district and get signatures equalling 1/4th the number of people who voted in the last gubernatorial election (specifically, the 2010 election).
  • If a sufficient number of signatures are gathered, the Tuesday during the 6th week after the petitions are turned in, either a partisan primary (if more than one Democrat or more than one Republican files to run) or a recall general election (if a primary is not necessary) is held. The recalled candidate is automatically on the ballot unless he (or she) declines to run within 10 days after the petitions are turned in. If there is a primary, the recall general election is held 4 weeks after the primary.
  • If the recalled official survives, he (or she) is immune from recall for the remainder of the term. If not, the winner assumes the office upon certification of the results.
• Item #3 – WisPolitics reported the reason the Assembly adjourned rather abruptly after attempting to take up the budget repair bill (in special sessions, identical bills are filed in both houses of the Legislature) was because enough credible threats to the security of the Assemblymen and their staff came into the Capitol Police to cause them to tell the Assembly leadership that their safety could no longer be assured. Quoting Mark Jefferson, executive director of the Republican Party of Wisconsin, in an RPW press release:
  

  To willfully prevent elected officials from performing their official duties in order to circumvent the legislative process flies in the face of democracy and is an insult to the citizens of this state.

  Governor Walker was elected to fix a broken system. Walker and Republicans campaigned and won on that platform, and the will of the people will not be suppressed by intimidation. State government is broken and the time for reform is now.

Tomorrow’s going to be interesting. I just hope it’s not in the Chinese way, as I’ll be in Madison.

Revisions/extensions (9:36 pm 2/18/2011) – I have to thank the folks at Power Line for linking here on the recommendation of Patrick McIlheran. Things have been moving fast, so most of my updates have been on my Twitter account rather than on the blog itself. With the rally tomorrow, I expect more of the same high Tweet count/low post count tomorrow.

I probably should have put this in with today’s Scramble, but I think I closed the books on that just before the expanded version went live at her blog. In any case, Michelle Malkin nails the essence of the argument once again:

The lowdown: State government workers in the Badger State pay piddling amounts for generous taxpayer-subsidized health benefits. Faced with a $3.6 billion budget hole and a state constitutional ban on running a deficit, new GOP Gov. Scott Walker wants public unions to pony up a little more. He has proposed raising the public employee share of health insurance premiums from less than 5 percent to 12.4 percent. He is also pushing for state workers to cover half of their pension contributions. To spare taxpayers the soaring costs of Byzantine union-negotiated work rules, he would rein in Big Labor’s collective bargaining power to cover only wages unless approved at the ballot box.

As the free-market MacIver Institute in Wisconsin points out, the benefits concessions Walker is asking public union workers to make would still maintain their health insurance contribution rates at the second-lowest among Midwest states for family coverage. Moreover, a new analysis by benefits think tank HCTrends shows that the new rate “would also be less than the employee contributions required at 85 percent of large Milwaukee_area employers.”

In addition to my open to today’s Scramble, where I outlined some very-recent history of The Union/Democrat Axis trying to grab the last of the loot and power on their way out the door, I’ll bring in the Milwaukee Teachers’ Education Association’s attempt to force the Milwaukee Public Schools to restore erectile dysfunction benefits. That’s right, back in 2002, MPS offered coverage for Viagra and that class of drug. By 2005, after a massive abuse of the privlege, MPS pulled it back, and the MTEA has been battling since to restore the benefit. By the summer of 2010, after arbitrators, administrative law judges and ultimately the state Labor and Industry Review Commission ruled in MPS’s favor, the MTEA filed suit rather than fight more vigorously for the teachers that had been laid off that summer.

Oh, did I mention that the MTEA shut down MPS today to set up a 4-day weekend?