Kris Alingod – AHN News Contributor
Madison, WI, United States (AHN) – Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker on Tuesday will outline a budget plan curbing collective bargaining rights to close a gaping deficit. Unions have protested since early this month, offering to pay more for healthcare premiums and pensions but standing firm on their right to collectively negotiate for benefits.
The governor makes his budget address before a joint session of the state legislature, where thousands of public employees have descended with tents and sleeping bags to convince lawmakers not to pass the measure.
The state’s 14 Democratic senators have been staying in Illinois to keep Republicans, who hold the majority, from establishing a quorum and “ramming” the bill through without debate.
Walker is seeking to close a $137 million deficit this year, and a projected deficit in 2013 of $3.6 billion, without increasing taxes. He has repeatedly denied Democratic requests to meet and discuss the plan, yet has publicly urged lawmakers to “return and debate the bill.”
The governor has also shown little interest in the offer by unions to agree to his proposal increasing workers’ payments for retirement plans and health premiums while dropping the plan to strip collective bargaining rights.
On Monday, the governor gave Democratic senators a day to return to the capitol, warning that a savings of $165 million would be lost if they did not do so.
“According to the Legislative Fiscal Bureau, if Senate Democrats refuse to return… the option to refinance a portion of the state’s debt will be off the table,” a statement from the governor’s office said.
Democratic Senate minority leader Mark Miller, however, also cited the Legislative Fiscal Bureau, saying the non-partisan bureau has prepared an alternative budget plan that, unlink the governor’s proposal, does not require a refinancing $165 million in debt.
Under the alternative Democratic budget plan, Wisconsin would need to complete $79 million in remaining agency lapses.
“Workers have come forward to offer the governor the economic concessions he said he needs to balance his budget,” Miller said. “Senate Democrats have offered yet another alternative to balance the budget and move forward.”
“Reasonable compromises are on the table. All that we need now is for the governor and Republicans to be willing to negotiate and find a middle ground,” Miller added.
The governor announced details of his budget on Feb. 15, igniting concerns among teachers that soon grew to massive labor rallies in the capitol and beyond into nearby states.
The proposal increases the payments of public workers for their health care premiums to 12 percent, and for their pensions to 5.8 percent.
Under the plan, collective bargaining would only cover base pay, which means public workers would have no power to negotiate other compensation such as benefits. The bill allows workers to opt out of paying dues to unions. It requires unions to conduct yearly certification.
Local police, fire and state patrol are exempted from the collective bargaining reforms.
Three Republicans joined Democrats in opposing the bill during a sudden, midnight-hour vote last Friday in the state Assembly. The vote was 51-17, but dozens of lawmakers were unable to cast their vote in a process that took seconds.
Democrats believe workers should not carry a heavier load of the state’s fiscal problems by having their cash wages reduced along with their ability to collectively negotiate terms of their employment.
They also cite the refusal of Republicans, including the governor, to engage in meaningful discussions about compromises, such as the union’s agreement to Walker’s plan for higher pension and health contributions.
“Workers have already had years of pay freezes, pay cuts, furloughs, and paying more into their health care and pensions,” state Kelda Helen Roys, a Democrat who has actively engaged constituents online and in the capitol, responded to a comment on Facebook.
“They make less (including benefits) than their private sector counterparts even though they are more educated – comparing similar employees,” Roys explained. “Average workers, making $25-$50,000/gross income per year stand to lose several thousand dollars by agreeing to these harsh concessions – it’s a punitive tax on the middle- and working-class, disguised as a ‘cost-saving’ measure.”
The governor has said his budget fix prevents more painful cuts and layoffs. He argues that collective bargaining reform is a fiscal issue, rather than a debate on workplace rights.
“It’s important to remember that many of the rights we’re talking about don’t come from collective bargaining,” Walker said in a television address last week. “They come from the civil service system in Wisconsin. That law was passed in 1905 (long before collective bargaining) and it will continue long after our plan is approved… Our bill is about protecting the hardworking taxpayer.”
Unions say Walker’s proposal highlights his close corporate ties by allowing the sale of state-owned power plants without a bidding process. The governor was also caught on tape speaking to a blogger posing as billionaire industrialist and GOP donor David Koch about planting troublemakers among protesters, and of refusing to negotiate with Democrats.
Despite national editorials calling him out for accepting a 20-minute phone call from a donor while refusing to meet with Democrats, Walker has dismissed the the phone conversation as a distraction.
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