tagged w/ Scott Walker Budget Proposal
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Republicans pushed a provision stripping public employees of their collective bargaining rights through the state Senate Wednesday evening by separating it from Gov. Scott Walker's controversial budget bill.
The action, if it stand, would have the effect of rendering moot a Democratic attempt to keep the provision from passing the Senate. The vote in the Senate was 18-1. No Democrats were present.
All 14 Democrats had left the state to prevent passage of the overall budget bill in opposition to the collective bargaining rights.
The Senate is split 19-14 with Republicans in the majority. Because the union provision was part of a budget bill, Republicans in the Senate needed at least 20 senators present for a quorum.
By separating the anti-union measure from the budget bill, Republicans did not need 20 senators for a quorum.
Before the Senate floor vote, Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald read the bill to a hastily created joint conference committee. Rep. Peter Barca, D-Kenosha, objected, saying the committee's meeting was in violation of the state's open meetings law. But Fitzgerald went ahead with the vote, which was seen live on WisconsinEye, and the measure was approved.
Senate Democrats reportedly were meeting to decide how to respond. Some argue that Senate Republicans were violating legislative rules with the vote.
The stand-alone measure would have to be approved by both the Senate and the Assembly, the lower chamber. The Assembly was not in session Wednesday and it was not clear that it could be convened until Thursday.
Stripping out the collective-bargaining provisions into a "non-fiscal" bill raises questions about the governor's and the Republicans' argument that the issue of collective bargaining rights is crucial to the budget.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/41996994/ns/politics-more_politics/Republicans pushed a provision stripping public employees of their collective... more
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We're going on offense against the Republican war on working families -- using the eloquent voices of Wisconsinites in a new TV ad in Madison and Milwaukee. As one person in the ad says, "This is a battle we need to win."
Please help us air this ad for as long as possible in Wisconsin -- chip in $3 (or more!) today.
http://www.actblue.com/page/waronworkingfamiliesWe're going on offense against the Republican war on working families -- using... more
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For weeks, Wisconsin has been the site of an intense battle between a Main Street Movement consisting of middle class Wisconsinites and a radical push by Gov. Scott Walker (R-WI) and his allies to strip most of the state’s public employee unions of their collective bargaining rights.
One of the lesser-known assaults on working class people in Walker’s most recent legislative push is his attempt to override federal Medicaid laws to place the state’s subsidized health care system, BadgerCare, under the control of the state’s Health and Human Services office, and then proceed to slash its budget and throw thousands of people off the rolls.
As In These Times’s Lindsay Beyerstein notes, this new provision in the budget is coupled with another policy which seems darkly ironic when seen alongside these Medicaid cuts. The Walker budget “recommends increasing payments to counties to cover the costs of burying Wisconsinites who die destitute” — one of the few major increases in spending to be found in the document. Indeed, on page 248 of the governor’s Health and Human Services budget, Walker recommends an “increase” in “funeral and cemetery aids”:
Yesterday, a “coalition of public-and private-sector unions is holding a jazz funeral for the welfare state in Wisconsin,” complete with a New Orleans-style procession. “If he’s going to let let them die, he’d better beef up the cemeteries,” said protest organizer Jean Ross, a co-president of co-president of National Nurses United, of Walker. “The man has no heart.”
http://thinkprogress.org/2011/03/04/walker-slashes-medicaid-funeral/For weeks, Wisconsin has been the site of an intense battle between a Main Street... more
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In the midst of fighting his union-busting crusade, Wisconsin’s embattled Gov. Scott Walker (R) unveiled his budget on Tuesday. Insisting on balancing the budget without raising taxes or fees, Walker proposed a two-year plan in which he expects students, participants in the SeniorCare prescription drug plan, poor families receiving health care or welfare, and local schools to make sacrifices. As one state lawmaker put it, his $900 million cut in state aid to schools is “an absolute annihilation” of public education. But targeting students, teachers, seniors, and poor people is not enough. He is also proposing to repeal Wisconsin’s Contraceptive Equity Law because, apparently for Walker, a budget also has to attack women’s health:
Gov. Scott Walker’s budget would repeal a state law requiring insurance companies cover prescription birth control.
Walker’s budget released Tuesday would undo the law signed in 2009 by his Democratic predecessor Gov. Jim Doyle. Passage of the bill, which took effect last year, came after more than a decade of trying by Democrats.
The mandate had been fought by anti-abortion groups and Catholics but supported by Planned Parenthood and public health groups.
Such a repeal would seriously jeopardize a woman’s reproductive health in Wisconsin. American women who aren’t using contraception like birth control represent “one-third of all women at risk of unintended pregnancy and account for 95% of the three million unintended pregnancies that occur every year.” Such pregnancies, in turn, have been linked to “numerous negative maternal and child health outcomes,” including “increased risk of morbidity for women” and delayed prenatal care for the infant. According to the CDC, prescription contraceptives are currently the leading method by which women avoid this danger.
But Gov. Walker’s anti-birth control agenda doesn’t just stop with banning insurance coverage. Taking a page from Gov. Chris Christie’s (R-NJ) playbook, Walker’s budget also eliminates Title V, “the only state funded family planning health care” that “ensures access to critical health care services for uninsured Wisconsinites including cervical, breast, and prostate cancer screening, well women exams, sexually transmitted disease screening and treatment, and access to contraception.” Zeroing out Title V leaves 50 health centers in Wisconsin at risk of closing — many of which provided contraceptive care to 52,000 Wisconsin women in 2008 alone. But to Walker, the deficit takes precedence. Of course, as a Guttmacher Institute study indicates, every $1 spent on birth control saves taxpayers $4.02 is just an inconvenient detail.
While other states like Iowa have specific legislation to limit birth control options, Walker is using his budget to “launch an all out assault on reproductive health care,” said NARAL Pro-Choice Wisconsin’s Executive Director Lisa Subeck. In doing so, “Walker completely fails the women and families of Wisconsin.”
http://thinkprogress.org/2011/03/03/walker-birth-control-women-health/In the midst of fighting his union-busting crusade, Wisconsin’s embattled Gov.... more
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Scott Walker gets duped into discussing his plans to trick his Democratic counterparts in the State Senate and plant troublemakers in the crowd of protesters.Scott Walker gets duped into discussing his plans to trick his Democratic counterparts... more
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Mark Miller, the leader of the Wisconsin Senate Democrats, says members of his party won't be falling for any of the tricks Governor Scott Walker might use to lure them back home and jam his union-busting bill through the legislature.
A bit of back story: Walker spent about 20 minutes on the phone yesterday with a man he thought was David Koch, one of the wealthy Koch brothers who bankroll a bunch of conservative causes. In the course of the call, Walker revealed that he was gaming out a bait-and-switch plan to tempt Democrats back to the state for bad-faith negotiations. Once they arrived, they could spend some time arguing with the governor over policy, but at the end of the day the Republicans would have a quorum in the Senate and could pass his legislation with no problem.
On a conference call organized by the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, I asked Miller whether the Democrats were prepared for these sorts of antics.
"I've heard rumors of it. Maybe it reveals something about the governor's character. The possibility of us having to be dragged back to the Capitol before this bill has had enough public scrutiny has always been a possibility and that's why we left the state in the first place," Miller said.
He offered no indication that Democrats have a plan to return to Wisconsin. "Employees have given him a victory, they've given him the money he needs.... The ball is in the governor's court," Miller said. "The only thing in his way is his refusal to accept a compromise."
http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/02/top-wisconsin-democrat-we-wont-be-falling-for-walkers-prank-call-scheme.phpMark Miller, the leader of the Wisconsin Senate Democrats, says members of his party... more
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During the election, there were only three unions that endorsed Walker for Governor of Wisconsin: The Firefighters, Police, and State Troopers. We've seen spectacular video of the Firefighters marching into the capitol with their bagpipes. The Firefighters have taken their stand.
Well, now, so have the Police.
And it's NOT with Walker.
Tracy Fuller, the Executive Board President of the Wisconsin Law Enforcement Association has issued a statement on the organization's page. Parts of it read as follows:
Please excuse the caps--this was how it was written
I am going to make an effort to speak for myself, and every member of the Wisconsin State Patrol when I say this.
Break*
I SPECIFICALLY REGRET THE ENDORSEMENT OF THE WISCONSIN TROOPER’S ASSOCIATION FOR GOVERNOR SCOTT WALKER. I REGRET THE GOVERNOR’S DECISION TO “ENDORSE” THE TROOPERS AND INSPECTORS OF THE WISCONSIN STATE PATROL. I REGRET BEING THE RECIPIENT OF ANY OF THE PERCEIVED BENEFITS PROVIDED BY THE GOVERNOR’S ANOINTING.
I THINK EVERYONE’S JOB AND CAREER IS JUST AS SIGNIFICANT AS THE OTHERS. EVERYONE'S FAMILY IS JUST AS VALUABLE AS MINE OR ANY OTHER PERSONS, ESPECIALLY MINE. EVERYONE'S NEEDS ARE JUST AS VALUABLE. WE ARE ALL GREAT PEOPLE!!
More:
I don’t believe that the Troopers Association could have possibly predicted, or comprehended the events that are unfolding in front of us at this time. I can agree that it was a tragic mistake for the Trooper’s Association to endorse the Governor, I can’t do anything about it, and they are reaping the benefits of their actions. I do believe they thought any benefits gained would be for all of the members of WLEA, after all, the PCO’s, Field Agents, Capitol Police, and U.W. Police are all in the same union.
Who could have possibly thought that the Governor could pluck one local’s members from a union and identify it as being worthy of bargaining for a contract? Some of the comments and attitudes that have been made and displayed would have you believe that the Governor consulted with the board of the Trooper’s Association about what his plans were in all of this.
And further on, he gets to the meat of the argument:
This bill has some provisions that make no sense, unless the basic intent is to bust unions. One provision makes it illegal for public employers to collect dues for labor organizations. The employer can take deductions for the United Way, or other organizations, but they are prohibited from collecting union dues.
How does that repair the budget?
Another provision requires the WERC to conduct a representation election by December 1st each year, to determine if the employees still want the union to represent them. The WERC has to bill the union for the cost of the election. Currently, if a group petitions the WERC to do an election, the WERC covers the cost. Right now, the members have the right to request an election if the majority of the members want to change or eliminate representation. Why create unnecessarily processes?
Does that help repair the budget?
This is where Walker has failed. This is where Republicans will ultimately fail. When the people become EDUCATED and realize what having Republicans in charge actually means, then Republicans lose every time.
Let's fervently hope it's not too late.
Protests in Michigan tomorrow, Ohio, Tuesday, and ongoing in Wisconsin. We MUST. NOT. LOSE. Failure at this point means the end of the American Democracy and the rise of American Fascism.During the election, there were only three unions that endorsed Walker for Governor of... more
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