Labor & Employment Law

Walker Manufactured Wis.?s So-Called Budget Crisis

By Tula Connell

This just out from Talking Points Memo:

Writes Brian Beutler:

Wisconsin’s new Republican governor has framed his assault on public workers’ collective bargaining rights as a needed measure of fiscal austerity during tough times.

BUT:

…this broadside comes less than a month after the state’s fiscal bureau?the Wisconsin equivalent of the Congressional Budget Office?concluded that Wisconsin isn’t even in need of austerity measures and could conclude the fiscal year with a surplus.

Beutler points out that: 

unlike true austerity measures?service rollbacks, furloughs, and other temporary measures that cause pain but save money?rolling back workers’ bargaining rights by itself saves almost nothing on its own. But Walker’s doing it anyhow, to knock down a barrier and allow him to cut state employee benefits immediately.

Read the full article here.

Full post as published by AFL-CIO NOW BLOG on February 17, 2011 (boomark / email).