With all eyes on Wisconsin, thought I would share these takes from today’s Wall Street Journal Political Diary Email…
Upping the Pressure on Wisconsin Dems . . .
The stalemate in Wisconsin over Republican Gov. Scott Walker’s proposed changes in union benefits and privileges is likely to end late this week. The budget bill that includes the union provisions also includes $165 million in refinancing of state bonds that must be passed by Friday in order to make sure Wisconsin can pay its bills.
Last night Mr. Walker told reporters that if the budget bill isn’t law by Friday he will have to lay off 1,500 state workers. He plans to give a televised address to Wisconsiners at 6 p.m. today.
In the state Senate, the GOP majority stepped up pressure on 14 Democratic colleagues who fled to Illinois to avoid giving Republicans a three-fifths quorum to vote on the budget last Thursday. But bills that don’t spend money only require a majority of senators to be present, so the Senate will reconvene today to vote on other issues. One will be a resolution commending the Green Bay Packers for winning the Super Bowl. It was authored by the Democratic state senator for Green Bay.
If that kind of shaming doesn’t work, Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald may call up a bill that would require voters to show photo identification at polling places, a measure bitterly opposed by many Democrats. The Senate Committee on Elections will vote on the photo ID bill today, and it could go to the Senate floor as early as Wednesday.
In theory, Mr. Fitzgerald also could separate out the collective bargaining changes from the rest of the budget bill and hold a vote on that part of the reform package as a stand-alone measure. "You have shut down the people’s government, and that’s not acceptable," was the message Mr. Fitzgerald conveyed to his Democratic colleagues at a news conference yesterday.
. . . And Their Teachers Union Allies
Taxpayer groups in Wisconsin are starting to ask how much all of these teacher "sick days" are costing taxpayers at a time when the state has a multibillion-dollar budget deficit.
In Madison, the capital, "sick" teachers caused schools to close Wednesday, Thursday and Friday of last week. In Milwaukee, the public schools were also closed on Friday so that hundreds of "sick" teachers could attend a rally to protest GOP Gov. Scott Walker’s collective-bargaining reforms.
"This hasn’t been cheap," says Brett Healy, president of the Maclver Institute, a state think tank. Every day that the Madison schools have been closed has cost the Madison school system about $900,000, according to Maclver. That’s $2.7 million to fund political protesting. In the Milwaukee County public school system, the walkout on Friday will cost the schools an estimated $3 million. And that’s just counting the direct costs to the schools for salaries. It doesn’t include costs to parents in arranging alternative plans for children who couldn’t go to school those days.
Many teachers have reportedly received phony doctors notes verifying that they were sick, which would give them an "excused" absence. The MacIver News Service reported that in Madison, "several doctors in lab coats were handing out medical excuse notes to passers by, without examining the ‘patients.’" Some of the unions are telling teachers to return to work this week.
Recent polls indicate that the unions seem to be losing the PR war. Teachers can’t explain why they can afford to pay an average of more than $1,000 a year in union dues but not to pay more for their health-care benefits. The shutdown of the schools has also made a mockery of Milwaukee Teachers’ Education Association President Michael Langyel, who declared during the protests that "the collective bargaining process allows us to positively impact school policy issues. We are advocates for our students." As Linda Hansen, director of the Wisconsin-based taxpayer group Prosperity 101, puts it, "How do these outrageous salaries and benefits help our students?"
That’s the question that teachers in Milwaukee, where the average salary and benefits exceed $100,000 a year, can’t seem to answer.
— Stephen Moore