No Raises for State Employees

The salary compensation plan was announced today and as expected it contained no raises for state employees. What really struck me in reading both the reports of the announcement and other reader comments was this disconnect between reality and perception. The reality is that state employees haven't had a raise in 2 years already. In fact they had their take home pay reduced by 3 percent in each of the previous 2 years due to furloughs, something that Gov. Walker has said did not save the state money. This is probably where he gets his math on the benefit payment plan of only being a reduction of 8 percent when the reality is that it is closer to 12%. But yet there is this perception that the state workers have not felt the pain as everyone else has. Maybe it was that the media didn't play up the furloughs and the 0% raise or talk about the previous 2 years with a 1 and 2% raise (that is 4 years ago, what were private sector employees getting then?). Most state employees understand that they are not going to get rich, they hope to make ends meet and have decent benefits. That is changing with the changes to health care. The state plan is probably really no better than what a large company provides (although everyone is cutting health care benefits, and they say that we don't need a national plan).

DNR hire unqualified?

Okay, I believe that in order to work for the DNR in charge of regulation you should have a college degree. In response to my ramblings about Brian Deschane's lack of a degree I was told that a college degree was not the end all be all but being qualified was and Brian is just not qualified. If that is the standard that statement is just not true. What the Governor and the Secretary (also without degrees) want from that position is someone who will change the regulatory nature of the department. In that case he is perfect for the job. In the last 2 years he has worked for the Wisconsin Builders Association, working to change the burdensome rules and regulations covering construction in the State. These are regulations such as set backs, runoff protection, and filling in of wetlands and shorelines. This is the small government conservatism, why should government tell a private individual what they can do with their property? So what if it affects others, Wisconsin is open for business and someone without a college degree is qualified to undue burdensome regulation.

It Was Never About the Money

The fallout from Thursday's vote was that the Democrats returned.  Remember when we had to get the whole bill done right away.  It was so important that there be quorum.  The next scheduled Senate session is April 7.  Tell me again Governor what we were trying to get done.  I guess that it was really all about breaking the unions.

Teachers and an Illegal Strike

I tend to be supportive of organized labor, but I can not agree with the teachers taking "sick" time to protest.  They are running an illegal strike and should face some kind of consequence for breaking the law.  Reading the comments on news articles it would indicate that many are not in favor of this action and they want the teachers fired.  This action may erode support for the unions.

Another Bright Idea

Gov. Walker has proposed that the biofuel part of  UW Madison's power plant rebuild be shelved in favor of a natural gas only facility.  On the bright side he didn't demand that the coal boilers be re-installed.  This is a short sighted proposal.  For one thing the rebuild is nearly complete.  For another the land has been acquired and existing structures removed.  So, we'll get a gas fired plant and a beautiful vacant block out of the deal.  Does the Governor have a plan for this block?  Are we going to hang onto it in case the scientists are right and we run out of cheap natural gas?  Do we try to sell the land to recoup some of the costs incurred in acquiring it?  Great sound bite proposal that wasn't thought out.  At some point the Governor is going to have to put out some real policy initiatives.