"We have a window here, and we're going to take advantage of it," said County Board Chairman Scott McDonell.... As long as the ruling is in force, McDonell said, local governments can negotiate new binding contracts with employee unions. Before Act 10 took effect, the county and the unions signed a three-year pact that ends in 2013 and a one-year deal for 2014.So they're locking us in for 2015 and beyond?
The meeting is at 7 p.m. tonight in room 201 of the City-County Building here in Madison.
Posts
42 comments:
They're locking some people in and some other people out.
Follow the money.
-XC
Disgraceful.
No elected official or group of officials should be permitted to negotiate a binding contract using public funds which extends beyond a single year.
Too busy? No you're not, you don't have anything more important to do.
Why would the county do something this stupid when they don't have to? They would be better off putting a proposition on the ballot asking the taxpayers to approve tax hikes to give the unions what they want.
Won't those agreements ultimately get thrown out if it turns out that the law was valid the whole time? I dunno, it seems silly that just because a law is between rulings you get to pick whether it applies to you or not.
Request to the Madison School District: please don't ask for any state funds in your budget planning while you lock yourself into unnecessarily high labor costs. Thanks, from those of us not living in the district.
If Madison people want to overpay teachers so badly, let them.
This is patently retarded and the Supreme Ct is going to slap this law down (and, hopefully, this will allow and overturning of ALL "deals" signed during this period).
Why would the county do something this stupid when they don't have to?
Because university towns have seldom been run by intelligent folks.
That is what the fuss is about.
Unions "negotiating" with union representatives doubling as council members for our money.
"So they're locking us in for 2015 and beyond?"
Vote Democrat.
All you have to lose is your freedom.
Well if there ever was a clearer example of the basic problem, I'm not aware of it. And that includes the cluelessness of someone a person in the position of McDonell.
The Madison press writes stories about when Madison folks don't protest the governor.
Yep.
And when the ruling is struck down on appeal, there will be a new round of lawsuits about whether the newly (illegally) negotiated contracts are in fact binding.
There's no way these lawsuits will ever end until there's a Democratic governor.
Russ Feingold: "This game's not over until we win."
Local governments, depending on their priorities, have as much control as they want with either Act 10 or without.
Local control does not automatically mean better and more responsive government. It means that the resulting goverment is more reflective of the people who vote it in.
If Dane County wants to punish itself unnecessarily, then who am I, as a Milwaukee County resident, to stop them. (I suspect that most local gov't liberals where I live secretly know that Act 10 is saving their budgets and their pet programs).
The Lefties will get their "pound of flesh" from the tax payers. They've earned it.
I assume that the state's lawyers are working quickly to seek a stay, either from the trial court or a higher one, of the ruling pending its appeal ... for PRECISELY the reasons laid bare in this post.
an opportunity to steal other peoples money should never be missed.
after they sign the agreements, they'll come back for a tax hike because labor costs have gone up.
Watch the same deal on using the WEA's captive health care scam
What has happened to Democrats? This is shocking, shameless behavior. Democrats are the termites of American society!
This is the kind of thing you read in text books. Stories that exemplify the times and give you a sense of where society and government were at. Hopefully, the next chapter will be about a public backlash against these types of insider dealings where the government is taking advantage of the tax payers instead of being an advocate for them.
This just proves that public unions and the government for whom they work are one and the same. They're making deals with themselves. Quite an arms-length negotiation.
"We have a window here, and we're going to take advantage of it"
By "it", he means taxpayers.
Remember when county boards represented the interests of taxpayers?
That's so retro.
This is extreme bad faith. The fact that they acknowledge the "window" shows that they think the ability to lock in the union goodies will be closed via a stay either by the judge who issued the order, Colas, or by the court of appeals, and that later, the ruling will be reversed.
It's very obvious who these public officals work for.
Judge Colas' ruling did not invalidate the provision that limited contracts to no more than one year. How do they expect to get around that?
In the immortal words of Levi Walking Bear, "I've learned to live in the white man's world. Grab all you can, anytime you can".
Notice who's missing from this thread?
And tax payer representation in these 'negotiations' is where again?
@Curious George 1.40pm ftw.
"County administrators were negotiating with workers Wednesday night on contracts that could keep its unions alive through 2015."
"We have a window here, and we're going to take advantage of it," said County Board Chairman Scott McDonell....
Don't these clowns have a fiduciary responsibility to the taxpayers? If a corporate board did that, the stockholders would sue their asses off.
pfennig said...
"Judge Colas' ruling did not invalidate the provision that limited contracts to no more than one year. How do they expect to get around that?"
With more frivolous lawsuits and more bogus rulings...
Sadly, I am a resident of Dane County/Madison. I will be going tonight but it's kind-of a David vs Goliath situation.
PS I am a public employee, but when I'm annually paying 50% of the amount I pay to my mortgage in taxes, it's a bit much, wouldn't you say? My garbage isn't getting picked up any better and my driveway still gets plowed in during every snowstorm.
Couldn't think of a better illustration of the need for this law, so thank you Dane county administrators!
The voters have spoken, they removed three Republicans and elected a pro-union majority in the senate. Duh!
"TosaGuy said...
Local governments, depending on their priorities, have as much control as they want with either Act 10 or without.
Local control does not automatically mean better and more responsive government. It means that the resulting goverment is more reflective of the people who vote it in.
If Dane County wants to punish itself unnecessarily, then who am I, as a Milwaukee County resident, to stop them. (I suspect that most local gov't liberals where I live secretly know that Act 10 is saving their budgets and their pet programs)."
Sadly, not all of Dane County is aboard, but Madison controls the county. So Sun Prairie, Fitchburg, etc are hosed.
Same problem we have in Milwaukee County (I live in Tosa also)... less so now of course.
"garage mahal said...
The voters have spoken, they removed three Republicans and elected a pro-union majority in the senate. Duh!"
Of course in addition to being just plain stupid this completely avoids the issue at hand.
the budget reserve is growing"...so why not use some of that to provide tax breaks to business that can be lured (it shouldn't be too hard) from Illinois? or better yet, how about lower taxes in the county instead of rushing to give your cronies a payoff? Isn't the job of county supervisors to give better local government to citizens? Is their first priority to "keep unions alive"?
I don't have a problem with this. If the residents in Dane county want to shot themselves in the head, have at it. After all, they're the ones that will be paying the bill.
I guarantee this won't happen in my county.
The board and the unions apparently came to an agreement BEFORE tonight's meeting, and the board is going to vote on it Thursday.
What a surprise. Too bad the idiotic voters in Dane County far outnumber the sensible people, or these scammers on the board could be voted out.
Public "servants" of the lowest order.
Is their first priority to "keep unions alive"?
Yes.
And you wonder why your lawmakers ban your second amendment rights. Seriously, you people need to start lynching your carpetbaggers. Government officials banning guns at town square meetings because they are afraid. They should be afraid. They should be fucking scared to death.
Bah, democrats and their ilk disgust me!
Post a Comment