New Wisconsin governor tries to bust unions

Read it several months ago. The chief variable it hangs its hat on is that public employees have more eduction to justify the higher wage. It avoids most of the common responses.

And as a former federal employee, GS-14 (plus the NYC differential) when I left fedgov in 1994 after 5 years as a gubmint atty, I can safely tell you that over half the government lawyers spend over half their time in the pub, playing the modern version of Civiliazation, or otherwise enaged in non-government-work activity. And that was the attorneys, basically the top of the food chain. The accountants, and secretaries were downright useless, you were lucky if you got a 2-hour day of productive time from them each day.

All the studies you will find will completly ignore what we used to call the government-uselessness factor. And that was just the big cities, NY, DC, Boston, Chicago and LA. It was even worse in the stix.

A buddy of mine? County scientist, chemist actually, who said his whole office is basically putting out from 4-5 hours during an 8 hour day. He left his private sector job (slightly higher pay, after bennies) to return to Nassau County because he actually had to work 9-10 hours each day to accomplish the work demanded for that higher pay. At the county, he left for home every afternoon at 4:30, like clockwork !

You're a fuckin idiot, but I express these anecdotes here for the WF members who aren't fuckinidiots.

 

Yeah, I'm sure you worked your way right up the ladder and earned your way to the top. Oh and if you were overpaid how much of your inflated salary are you going to give back? Or did you leave government service and take a pay cut because of your moral outrage over being overpaid so much? How much of your "wealth" did you chisel off your expense account? How many times did you drive your GSA car home? How many cases did you tank because of your libertarian views? Or did you get fired for incompetence? Oh yeah, that's right it's impossible to fire government employees. I guess you would be proof! Another fat cat NY lawyer, boy they're gonna love you in Texas!

 

Aren't you listening? Public service overpay is a more recent phenomenon. [And the promised-pension-payouts at the state levels have actually become downright gross in a lot of cases.] When I was in government, I went from $28,800 in 1989, to around 54,500 in 1994. I was there during a steep rise in the curve of gubmint pay - plus they added a fedgov pay differential in NY, DC, and a few other big cities during my watch. Meanwhile, counterparts in the private sector made around $110,000 at that time, when I left, but they worked more than twice as hard. Law firm counterparts made around $165,000, but they worked about 3 times as long (70-hour weeks, plus).

Today the equation favors government workers in roles comparable to where I was by far. Bascially the gubmint now pays close to the middle range amount, for the same 4 to 6 hour days.

I can't recall the specific circumstances surrounding those events, Senator.

 

That you put it on a side note in parentheses.

 

Some of our state employees do not contribute to their medical insurance and in some cases to their retirements. Why the taxpayers are expected to cover their entire medical insurance coverage and retirements is outrageous. There absolutely no reason they shouldn't be contributing themselves. During an economic downturn, they also should not be receiving pay raises on the backs of the taxpayers who are more than likely lucky to still have jobs. Jobs that in many cases are giving them increases in what they pay for the medical insurance, retirement programs that are losing money yet aren't being bailed out by anyone other than the employee themselves.

Government employees are not living in the real world. For them to continue to demand "cadillac" medical plans that they little if anything into, and retirements they contribute little to nothing to demonstrates a level of arrogance that needs to be put down.

We need another Reagan that will basically tell them to go pound sand.

 

This Ronald Reagan? As governor, Reagan was the biggest California spender of the last half century. Under him, state spending leaped 177 percent. And as president, he spent like the proverbial drunken sailor to expand the Navy and the nuclear missile arsenal while winning the Cold War. He left Washington with a then-record national debt.

His first year as governor, Reagan raised taxes equal to 30 percent of the state general fund, still a modern record.

LINK

 

Southernmost?



The Texas coastal area between Houston and the Louisiana border is also called the Redneck Riviera.

 

In Florida we have a saying that "The further North you go, the further South you get"

 

It was bad enough when Florida was full of Floridians now it's full of Yankees and Floridians.

I guess that makes Missisloppy the Redneck Monaco?

 

Vultures were already circleing before the press conference was even over:

http://seattletransitblog.com/2011/02/16/florida-rejects-hsr-money-may-come-to-washington

But the jostling for scaps may all be for naught:

http://miamiherald.typepad.com/nake...ck-scott-over-bullet-train.html#ixzz1EHNmvRMu

Honestly I'm not sure how I think about this. As much as I love HSR, I am not convinced that we are ready to leapfrog to 'True High Speed Rail.' And I'm not convinced at all Florida is the place to first try it out. We've spent billions (trillions? I know adding the 3rd runway at SeaTac was 1.1B alone) of dollars and half a century turning our airports into transportation hubs... rental cars, hotels, massive parking structures, while at the same time our train stations have languished. Combined that with Florida's lackluster investment in public transit, I have to wonder if people would actually be able to use this service?

Compare this to say, the NEC which is upgrading existing ROW and connecting cities with established mass transit systems (where the train station is already a hub) and I'm not sure the dollars wouldn't be better spent there or in other similar corridors (say, MidWest, or PNW).

 

Yes, he did. Interesting things came from Reagan too while he was CA governor. Things like highways, roads, and things that everyone benefitted from.

But, hey don't let pesky little things like that get in the way of your jerk off fest for taxpayer funded unions that represent, ungrateful, demanding, spoiled government workers.

 

Really? Please show a comparison of public school teacher salaries and private school teacher salaries.

Fucking idiot.

 

False. The law -- not collective bargaining agreements -- protects the bureaucracy from politics.

 

Bizarro Florida?

 

In the Arizona State Retirement System, the rate is 9.6%. Half (4.8%) is paid by the employee and half is paid by the employer. There are several bills this year that are intended to make changes in the ASRS, so I don't know how much it will be next year.

 

What kind of maintenance costs are you worried about? Are there any figures available on them? What did the Tribune miss in this editorial?

 

Mike's been waving the liberal flag pretty firmly since his return, although thankfully he's not limited to talking point memos like most of his WF counterparts. His was the ideaology I was responding to, not the guys like you or Zombie, who I respect a good deal more.

Anyway, we started search based on growth rates since 2000. Flagler Cty growth rates caught our eyes initially. Jacksonville was modestly attractive, but nothing interesting (existing businesses for sale) turned up.

None of the other FL counties showed signs of growth enough to focus our attention in particular, although last week I again searched FL for attractive enterprise zones or existing businesses for sale (mostly restaurant, and gas station/C-store/kitchen) just in case, and the search-bots have been programmed.

Actually I mostly agree with you, though in part because I'm biased in favor of Florida as I'm familiar with it for years, and lived on a boat for a decade (I like the ocean). It took me some time to resolve that instead Texas is where I'll end up. Mostly the attractive businesses we've found are in TX (San Antonio, Houston, Blanco, maybe Austin). But, in fairness, what convinced me to go Tex is that the vote in FL is going purple, e.g. voted Obama IIRC. Not a big deal. Also, the disproportion of older folks will cost FL taxpayers eventually, much in the way NY and CA have some overhang of obligations. And I can't believe that taxes eventually won't have to go up with all the blue state liberals that've been moving to FL (all those assholes that Mike was apparently complaining about, since he couldn't have been talking about me ). Most of the rest of what I said in specific was fair, but the general stuff was just replying to Mike in kind.

On the other hand, TX does have an 'income tax' by another name, a "margin tax," that is tiny to start, but is encroaching and revealing. Dallas voted Obama. TX too is running into some pension obligation insolvencies teens years ahead (~18), and TX cities have shown some selected other signs of drinking the kool aid.

One of the winning factors is that Texas legislators meet only 6 months every 2 years, and the other 18 months must work real jobs, and live with the people they impacted with the laws they passed - the reduced threat of lawmakers is what pushed me past my original bias that so strongly favored Florida over TX (e.g. the much reduced cultural acclimation difference that favors FL).

 

The protesters are really out of touch with reality.


They think they're championing for democracy when they're actually going against what a majority of Wisconsinites have voted on - that they should contribute a bit more to their own pensions, and that their pay should not be raised above the Consumer Price Index without approval by public referendum.


They say they're on the side of progress when they're actually fighting for the status quo - the one that's led to such budget deficits in the first place.


They think they're standing up 'for the children' when many have neglected their responsibilities - resulting in closed schools and demonstrating the use of bullying to get their way.


They try to garner sympathy with their "poor lil' me" persona when they are actually among the most privileged of Wisconsin citizens, what with their generous salaries, extravagant benefits, job security, working conditions, early retirement, pensions . . . while all the parents who don't have pensions or job security (especially this last year) or the ability to just skip work are having to deal with all these school closures, and are feeling less and less sympathetic towards the strikers.


And the protesters are spewing so many lies to obscure what this is all actually about - that Walker could make teachers work on Saturdays without pay if he wanted, or that nurses will be forced to work 16 hour shifts, or that it's about taking over the classroom and destroying public education.


But it's not. It's about people not understanding the difference between a 'right' and an 'entitlement'.

I hope Walker doesn't cave to them.

 

You gave yourself away as knowing fuck all about Florida when you missed the Redneck Riviera reference. Anyway, Florida under republican governors and legislatures has been cutting taxes year after year. Sooner or later they're going to have to raise money from somewhere. Right now they're just raising the price of government services all over the place and calling them "fees". Florida was exposed in an Atlantic Magazine article a few years back in an article called the "Ponzi State". Really for the better part of a hundred years, the powers that be have been busy promoting policies that used current growth to pay for past growth. When the growth stopped...

Florida is simply reaping the return of short sighted greedy policies based on short turn returns that could be generated by selling the state as a cheap place to live. Hell it used to be on a par with Hawaii in many places, now it's overpaved, polluted and generally gone to seed with no real policies in place except to promote more growth in a state where all the beachfront property is paved over and the quality of life that used to draw people is ruined. Ironically, the last governor who took a serious swing at tax reform was republican Bob Martinez, he chickened out and took it all back when the shit hit the fan. Too bad, because if he had stuck to his guns he would cakewalked to a second term and might have won the White House. Unfortunately his original stand hurt him and then his backtracking made him look like a chickenshit opportunist to his enemies on both sides of the aisle.

No one is free from blame: not the politicos of both parties who created this mess and certainly not us the voters who elected them.

 

Right, just like you demonstrated your IQ and knowledge of geography when you called the Florida panhandle the southernmost part of Florida.

Heh.

As for the rest, maybe if Frontline or Zombie or Noodles repeats what you say I might read it, but otherwise I just can't wrap my mind around allowing you to represent the image that I form of Florida. It'll be chicks in bikinis and those guys philosophically, with scant room for your misplaced economically liberal ideology.

[oh, and under Reagan the Federal Register went from like 80,000 pages to below 48,000 ('80 to '86) before increasing again, the "misery index" dropped from 20 to 10%, and the min wage didn't go up once during his administrations with the consequence that thanks to 8 years of Reagan we added 21 million new jobs in America, more than the amount of jobs that have been created since. IIRC. Something like that.]

 

Getting back on topic, it turns out that there is a possibility that Wisconsin's governor manufactured this "crisis" as a pretext to do some union busting.

In its Jan. 31 memo to legislators on the condition of the state's budget, the Fiscal Bureau determined that the state will end the year with a balance of $121.4 million.
To the extent that there is an imbalance -- Walker claims there is a $137 million deficit -- it is not because of a drop in revenues or increases in the cost of state employee contracts, benefits or pensions. It is because Walker and his allies pushed through $140 million in new spending for special-interest groups in January.

Obligatory leftist blog link

It turns out that more than half of the shortfall the Governor is complaining about comes from three of his own measures...

$25 million for an economic development fund for job creation, which still holds $73 million because of anemic job growth.
$48 million for private health savings accounts -- a perennial Republican favorite.
$67 million for a tax incentive plan that benefits employers, but at levels too low to spur hiring.
In essence, public workers are being asked to pick up the tab for this agenda

I'm sure everyone here would be just thrilled if their employer cut their pay to support their CEO's private agenda.

Full Report

 

Uh counselor, if you don't understand that joke I"m not sure I'd trust you to represent me in court on a fucking parking ticket. Here it is and try to keep up: In Florida, the southernmost parts are filled with the most Yankees. To the point that as Frontline pointed out Miami is often referred to as NYC"s 6th burrough, also known as "Brooklyn with palm trees". Tampa Bay is an urban melting pot with a heavy Latin influence on the Tampa side and lots of country club republican retirees on the St. Pete side. Orlando is a hodgepodge created by Disney. As you move up toward Gainesville north, the traditions, outlook on life and even the accents are more southern. In Jacksonville there's a high school named after the Ku Klux Klan founder. From Jacksonville west you can immerse youself in deep southern culture.

It's like the difference big city New York assholes and the huntin', fishing and farming types in the upstate region. I seem to know more about the cultural differences of your state than you do about my state. Interesting.

 

I believe he was speaking culturally/politically, not geographically. Another nickname for the Panhandle is 'Lower Alabama.'

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lower_Alabama

 

Ya know, i was reading that piece with an open mind and a wry acknowledgment about the nasty compromises between political rhetoric and political action...until i got the the phrase "tea baggers"

sorry.

Anyone childish enough to go there loses the right to tell me anything. I'm ready to see some maturity from the people i talk politics and ideology with and if you can't bring it, then you don't deserve any of my attention.

 

There are important differences between the US and Greece. (See Japan, for example: 196%)

But even if there weren't, it's much more likely that the US will dump some or all of the debts owed to the Social Security fund (a significant portion of the total) as part of a privatisation of the scheme.
In fact, it could be argued that the "need" to do that is one reason they're driving the debt up in the first place.

 

Didn't members of the TEA party identify themselves as teabaggers first, not labeled that?