Wisconsin protest, a sign of things to come?

[Billybob]

No kidding ... they held the majority Democratic gov and state legislature hostage and now they don't understand why the Republican gov and state legislature won't "negotiate" anymore.

I saw an article that some news crews had videotaped some teachers getting fake sick slips from doctors on the steps of the capitol building ... I do believe that is fraud, is it not?? And a fireable offense, I might add.

If anyone in the private sector took off work to protest like this they would have to use vacation days or take leave without pay and risk not having a job to go back to. Seems like the same should be in place for public employees who are obviously abusing the system ...

Here's how they played it...

[Doctors from numerous hospitals set up a station near the Capitol to provide notes covering public employees' absences. Family physician Lou Sanner, 59, of Madison, said he had given out hundreds of notes. Many of the people he spoke with seemed to be suffering from stress, he said.]

["What employers have a right to know is if the patient was assessed by a duly licensed physician about time off of work," Sanner said. "Employers don't have a right to know the nature of that conversation or the nature of that illness. So it's as valid as every other work note that I've written for the last 30 years."]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110219/ap_on_re_us/us_wisconsin_budget_unions

 

[Biggsly]

You would think ... You know, I don't have a problem with people protesting ... But I do have a problem with liars, cheats and criminals ...

I figure the folks that showed up Saturday to protest the protesters were private sector working people who couldn't take the day off from work on Friday like the public employees did. Interesting, huh?

I agree 100%. Everytime the Dems need protesters, they pay them and bus them in. Nobody wants to cut programs, but we a re running out of money. Someone has to stand up and stop the spending.

 

[BadgeBunny]

Here's how they played it...

[Doctors from numerous hospitals set up a station near the Capitol to provide notes covering public employees' absences. Family physician Lou Sanner, 59, of Madison, said he had given out hundreds of notes. Many of the people he spoke with seemed to be suffering from stress, he said.]

["What employers have a right to know is if the patient was assessed by a duly licensed physician about time off of work," Sanner said. "Employers don't have a right to know the nature of that conversation or the nature of that illness. So it's as valid as every other work note that I've written for the last 30 years."]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110219/ap_on_re_us/us_wisconsin_budget_unions

My husband is a public employee ... I was a public employee for several years ... I sincerely hope this state has the fortitude to bust the union.

Teacher are just like the rest of us ... some good, some bad ... but lying is lying and it ain't right.

 

[BadgeBunny]

I agree 100%. Everytime the Dems need protesters, they pay them and bus them in. Nobody wants to cut programs, but we a re running out of money. Someone has to stand up and stop the spending.

No kidding ... I sure wish I had somebody else paying all my bills and covering hot checks for me ... Oh, wait ... GC DOES do that for me ... (OK, well he draws the line at hot checks but you get my drift ...)

 

[DirtyDawg]

Just keep on doing nothing....because the crisis will be here in Oklahoma before you know it. None of our elected officials here in Oklahoma have the intestinal fortitude to address the problem before it is a crisis....nor do the citizens of this state. Our state employees have a pension plan that is severely underfunded, and in my opinion....unsustainable. See report on KOTV====

http://www.newson6.com/Global/story.asp?S=13858370

Who wants to be the first Oklahoma state employee to offer up a benefit & pension cut? What?? Nobody?? OK....then all in favor of tax increases raise your hand!!

 

[Jefpainthorse]

Seems that Fox news and Rush L are a better source of public education than public schools.

Oklahoma has put workers on furlough , cut budgets, frozen raises for the last couple of years
Wisconsin residents pay some of the highest state and local taxes in the country and their teachers make pay in the lower tier of the national average.
Wisconsin doesn't need to "break the union". Wisconsin needs to manage it's admin costs, program overlaps etc.

Keep running the work out of this country and watch the tax base shrink. Run everybody else out of a job and watch your tax revenues fall.
Last I heard OHP is a union shop... They don't let you retire and pension out of the kindness of the States heart.

 

[BadgeBunny]

Seems that Fox news and Rush L are a better source of public education than public schools.

Oklahoma has put workers on furlough , cut budgets, frozen raises for the last couple of years
Wisconsin residents pay some of the highest state and local taxes in the country and their teachers make pay in the lower tier of the national average.
Wisconsin doesn't need to "break the union". Wisconsin needs to manage it's admin costs, program overlaps etc.

Keep running the work out of this country and watch the tax base shrink. Run everybody else out of a job and watch your tax revenues fall.
Last I heard OHP is a union shop... They don't let you retire and pension out of the kindness of the States heart.

That is true ... But they also are responsible in their negotiations with the state. Several years ago when it became apparent that the retirement fund was going to be underfunded if some changes weren't made increases were made and the employees started contributing more to their pensions. Do you think the employees wanted to pay more? No, but it was necessary. Better to pay in more and have a responsibly funded pension plan than no pension plan at all.

This last year when the state was furloughing DPS voluntarily made deeper budget cuts than the legislature asked for so they could avoid furloughs. Do you think the troopers wanted to give up their overtime shifts, and have to work around mileage limits? Or that the supervisors wanted to add to their own workload and start doing some "street work"? No, but it was better than being furloughed.

There hasn't been an academy in several years. All that does is reduce the number of troopers and put a heavier workload on the guys left after normal attrition. It also strains the pension plan because there are fewer contribution $$s coming in and more going out as employees retire. I don't know the exact number but there are several counties that have only one trooper covering them. That can't be safe for the citizens or the troopers but what do you do??

At some point the system is going to break down if the unions keep on insisting that the .gov's pay for benefits, wages, etc. that the taxpayers can no longer afford. It wouldn't surprise me in the least if the department eventually goes to a 30-year base retirement plan than the 20-year plan that is now in place.

 

[Hobbes]

On a somewhat related note:

There is a big push underway at the Oklahoma capitol to 'reform' the pension plans in Oklahoma.

"Reform" = eliminating pensions for all new employee hires and placing new employees in a 401K plan.
OPERS, TRS, Firefighters, OHP, and some other smaller systems.

The money saved by the state would go towards tax cuts.

Hopefully the elimination of new employees entering the pension plans wouldn't undercut their already precarious financial positions.
If it does, the state might be forced to pony up even more money at some point in the future.

It should be a huge boon to financial investment firms to manage all that 401k money though.

 

[BadgeBunny]

On a somewhat related note:

There is a big push underway at the Oklahoma capitol to 'reform' the pension plans in Oklahoma.

"Reform" = eliminating pensions for all new employee hires and placing new employees in a 401K plan.
OPERS, TRS, Firefighters, OHP, and some other smaller systems.

The money saved by the state would go towards tax cuts.

Hopefully the elimination of new employees entering the pension plans wouldn't undercut their already precarious financial positions.
If it does, the state might be forced to pony up even more money at some point in the future.

It should be a huge boon to financial investment firms to manage all that 401k money though.

You know ... I can't say that that sounds like a bad idea. They have SoonerSave in place already. Maybe they should make contributions to that a mandatory percentage of pay?? It costs us a dollar or two a quarter in administrative fees for our account and we have only lost money (and not much at that) two quarters out of the several years we have been contributing to SoonerSave.

 

[cjjtulsa]

Just keep on doing nothing....because the crisis will be here in Oklahoma before you know it. None of our elected officials here in Oklahoma have the intestinal fortitude to address the problem before it is a crisis....nor do the citizens of this state.

I've got news for you: it ain't just this state. The entire country doesn't have the fortitude to do what's right to save our arses. Oh sure, everyone wants to make brave cuts, but only to the public programs they're not leeching off of. The crisis is here....the American people just haven't started to feel the real pain. Yet.

Soon as the rest of the nations wise up and dump the worthless dollar as the world's reserve currency (and that wolf is now at the door), we'll feel the pain - in the worst way. These folks in Wisconsin would be thrilled to have what their governor is proposing compared to the swift kick in the groin they're going to get when that steamer hits the fan. That kick is going to hammer all of us.