From: frank theriault
On Sun, Feb 27, 2011 at 9:40 AM, Bob Sullivan <[email protected]> wrote:
> Boris,
>
> No armed revolts here, but many unhappy people.
> The perception is that public employees - teachers, police, & firemen
> are retiring at 2/3 or 3/4 of annual salary as paid by the state government.
> Most people are not covered by such pensions and have seen their
> retirement 'nest egg' fall by 50% or more in the financial crisis.
> (Falling home prices vs fixed mortgage loans have wiped out homes as assets.)
> So the 'have-nots' now resent the union deals and see pensions
> as something they will pay increased taxes to cover in the future.
>
<snip>
These people (the unionized public employees) perform important
functions in our society, and for the most part deserve their salaries
and other benefits. They unionized and made their deals when times
were good, and one can't blame them for holding on to them as best
they can.
I don't know about Chicago or elsewhere in the US, but here there has
been an ongoing attack on unionized public sector workers for some
time. Since government can't simply wipe out contracts already made,
they now have things like hiring freezes, hire loads of part time
employees (who aren't unionized) or contract out lots of work (which
studies show often don't save money in the long run). Services are
being trimmed and shut down to the detriment of those who can least
afford it. But hey, it saves tax payers' money, so that's okay,
right?
Funny, but I don't see mass protests about how much CEOs and
executives at car companies or banks make - or what their pension
plans are worth. I'd bet it's a lot more than what the average cop or
teacher makes. How many billions of government dollars went into
bailing out those two industries?
There two things that really need to be understood about what's going on
in Wisconsin:
1. Where did the "hole" in Wisconsin's budget come from?
Wisconsin's needed approximately $68 billion dollars for the 2011-2012
biennium to maintain the level of state government expenditures at the
2009-2010 level.
At the end of fiscal 2010, Wisconsin was looking at a short-fall in tax
revenues of $2-$3 billion dollars for the 2011-2012 biennium. That is,
they needed $68 billion to maintain funding levels and were expecting to
collect only about $65 billion in taxes during the two year period.
One of the first acts of the new Republican majority in the Wisconsin
legislature this session was to force through, by a partisan majority, a
corporate tax cut bill that will reduce Wisconsin tax revenues by $117
billion during that same 2011-2012 biennium.
Almost the entirety of the "hole" is created by a tax give-away to the
already wealthy.
Now, the legislature is looking for additional spending cuts, not just
cuts in state employees pension and benefits, but cuts to services to
citizens (police, schools, hospitals, roads, parks, prisons ...) to
cover that $117 billion corporate tax cut.
2. The public employee "unions" already agreed to wage and benefit cuts
to help the state "balance" the budget; doing their part to help close
the pre-existing $2-$3 billion dollar "hole".
The attack on the workers' right to organize, freely associate and to
negotiate collectively has no effect whatsoever of saving the state
additional money, nor will it aid in any way in closing the "hole" in
the state budget created by the massive corporate tax cuts already
enacted this session.
All it does is shift the balance of power in the workplace further in
favor of the employer and against the worker.
What it also does is set the stage for future legislation denying those
same rights to private sector workers. And, *THAT* is the real agenda.
Surely it is ironic that Wisconsin was in the forefront of the late 19th
and early 20th century "Progressive" movement that directly led to
workers' rights.
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