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the union employees in Wisconsin have already agreed to take the concessions proposed by the Governor. He's still trying to gut their right to collectively bargain. THAT IS ENTIRELY POLITICALLY MOTIVATED.
The teachers were awarded a 3% INCREASE in salary this year. That contract will still be honored until it runs out.
They agreed to pay a tiny bit more into their health care and retirement funds...that's ALL.
What Walker wants to do is tie FUTURE pay increases to the COL index and make that subject to voter's approval.
Many other states put teacher salary increases up for voter approval..they are called "levies"
Rachel is right and we in Wisconsin know it. Thousands who voted for Walker would now give anything to take back that vote. He is destroying the Wisconsin we have always known and loved and the only people who don't realize it are those who choose blindness over freedom.
Fact: Governor Fiscal Irresponsible enacted legislation that gives Big Business in his state $140 million in tax breaks.
FACT: The Governor created TWO Job Creation programs. Those are intended to put people back to work in Wisconsin. It is completely dishonest to say they were tax break favors to big business.
I agree with what the governor is trying to do to these unions (break them) but at the same time he needs to spread the burden. He needs to at least reduce the tax cut he gave big business and also raise taxes on everyone else and cut state spending in other areas.
I feel that maybe with the exception of police and firefighters government employees should never, ever be allowed to unionize. I'm sorry, but we just cannot afford to pay lifetime pensions at $100K a year for 40 years to thousands of government workers.
That being said, it's unfair for Wisconsin to balance the budget solely on the backs of it's public employees. The burden must be spread around equaly IMO.
You lived in the Ozarks? COOL! My family had a condo on the lake (at the 28 mile marker) for years.
As for the Politifact article, I suggest they're splitting hairs.
Okay, the tax breaks for Big Business won't go into effect until next year. Explain how that negates the fact that Governor Fiscal Irresponsible ADDED ANOTHER $140 MILLION SHORTFALL to the state's near-term deficit? And how does it negate the fact that Governor Fiscal Irresponsible is trying to enact legislation that will BUST THE UNION and FORCE THEM to no more than CPI increases in all future years SO THAT HE CAN COVER HIS FUTURE TAX BREAKS TO BIG BUSINESS?
Fact: Governor Fiscal Irresponsible enacted legislation that gives Big Business in his state $140 million in tax breaks.
Fact: Governor Fiscal Irresponsible is attempting to bust the union and their ability to collectively bargain, across ALL the years that his tax breaks will be in effect.
It's a debase political move, period.
We still own property on Lake Taneycomo, but I have tons of friends with property not too far from where your parents had their condo--Cool!
As for the rest of--what you said
I think states and the federal government need to make serious and significant cuts, but this is being done in an entirely politically motivated way--they gave cuts to big business, and even after the unions voluntarily agreed to the cuts the governor recommended, he's trying to use that shortfall as an excuse to cut them off at the knees. People aren't dumb.
FACT: The Governor created TWO Job Creation programs. Those are intended to put people back to work in Wisconsin. It is completely dishonest to say they were tax break favors to big business.
Don't call me dishonest. They were IN FACT tax breaks that go to Big Business. You can tell me in two years how many new-hires those tax breaks directly created in their first year.
I didn't type in bold print, that is the headline!
It is also a LIBERAL source saying she's false.
I'll take the word of The Wisconson State Fiscal Bureau over any reporter of any political leanig... thank you very much. Maddow got her info from the source.
Your source leads to idiots like Hannity of all people. OMG!
That first week Walker was in the Governor’s chair the legislature quietly passed five bills all designed to give about $140 million in tax relief to coporate business OUTSIDE Wisconsin. Now he says he must fix the $137 million shortfall now. Wisconsin’s own non-partisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau reports that we had a surplus of about $56 million as we start the year. That is cause for austerity in the upcoming budget but it is not a crisis requireing all public employees in Wisconsin to give up collective bargaining rights and to take a huge hit on pension and insurance benefits. The most insulting thing about the Governor’s actions in office to date are that by manufacturing this crisis he requires our public servants to make a sacrifice that they may not even have to have made save for the unwise tax breaks Walker handed out to out of state business in the very first days he took office.
An Observation/Question on the Situation in Wisconsin
Now, the fundamental criticism being leveled at Walker is that he is stripping rights from groups that did not support him and allowing groups that did support him to retain theirs. This is not an unreasonable supposition. An Observation/Question on the Situation in Wisconsin
No matter what conservative governors say, the extension of collective-bargaining to public-sector workers is not what entangled us in the current economic crisis. Indeed, what is going on in Wisconsin and other states ought to be seen for what it is: a bald attempt to exploit the bad economy, undo 50 years of legal precedent on labor issues, and win a political victory, no matter the cost. Wisconsin Chicanery: A Short History Of Public Employees' Right To Negotiate | The New Republic
I'll take the word of The Wisconson State Fiscal Bureau over any reporter of any political leanig... thank you very much. Maddow got her info from the source.
IF you really take it from the source then.....
The confusion, it appears, stems from a section in Lang’s memo that -- read on its own -- does project a $121 million surplus in the state’s general fund as of June 30, 2011.
But the remainder of the routine memo -- consider it the fine print -- outlines $258 million in unpaid bills or expected shortfalls in programs such as Medicaid services for the needy ($174 million alone), the public defender’s office and corrections. Additionally, the state owes Minnesota $58.7 million under a discontinued tax reciprocity deal.
The result, by our math and Lang’s, is the $137 million shortfall.
No Hannity or Beck.....just the FACTS straight from the same guy YOU claim said there would be a surplus.
Don't call me dishonest. They were IN FACT tax breaks that go to Big Business. You can tell me in two years how many new-hires those tax breaks directly created in their first year.
Well, when you call them tax breaks to reward big business, it's not true.
They were job creation bills and they gave tax breaks for HIRING people.
You know....taking them off the unemployment rolls?
No one gets a tax break IF they don't hire. Simple.
The result, by our math and Lang’s, is the $137 million shortfall.
Then why did Governor Fiscal Irresponsible set out in his first weeks in office to add ANOTHER $140 MILLION to that shortfall?
Oh yeah, fake job creation while he destroys the actual jobs of the people who teach our children and protect our streets, homes and businesses.
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