2011 Closeout - Was Act 10 ALL Bad?

We're in duck and cover mode...purely from the title of this entry.

But, you know what, folks?  Whether you are a Walker devotee or a Walker detractor, you have to admit that EVERYTHING that Act 10 did was not bad.  Yes, at its heart, Act 10 was a heinous attempt to cut public employees down at the knees.  That was neither right nor fair.  You can argue whatever you like, but the fact remains that for these scorned public workers, benefits were improved over the years IN LIEU OF salary increases.  Rightly or wrongly so, that is what it boiled down to.  Publicly, governors declared victory by giving public employees only modest raises (1-2%) each year.  In some years, they got nothing.  Quietly, however, behind the scenes, they negotiated with the unions to pick up the tab for a greater percentage of benefits...or offered another few days of annual leave(vacation).

This didn't happen overnight, people!  This process developed over the past 25-35 YEARS!  We know of many examples of private sector workers who took a job with in the public sector at a substantial demotion in terms of pay.  These workers made a choice to do so in exchange for enhanced job security.  Again...be it right or wrong, that's what they did.  It took many of these workers 10 years or more to be earning the same salary they did when they left the private sector. But it was a choice, and they were OK with their choice.

Don't tell us that the private sector is struggling.  Certainly, many private businesses and employees have suffered since the economic crisis which began over 3 years ago.  But many are faring much better.  We are hearing of BONUSES being given this holiday season.  Public employees have never and WILL never hear of such a thing.  We also know many private sector employees that have good to excellent health and retirement benefits.

What Governor Walker and Act 10 did was to institute an 8-10% reduction in take home pay for ALL public sector workers.  He made them pay more for benefits, but did so without increasing the salary that these folks gave up in return for the benefits.  Now he has proclaimed that state employees won't see a raise for the next 2 years... at least.   The last raise any state employees will have seen was back in 2008.

So...that's the despicable part.  There was however a silver lining.  What Walker did, along one tangent, was to do what none of the school boards across the state was willing to do: stop the madness.  If you think state and municipal employees had it good...you never looked into school teacher and administrative compensation.  In Sun Prairie, teachers and administrators were paying $200 per YEAR for health insurance that cost the tax payers more than $14,000 per year.  Yep...that's barely more than 1% of the premium cost.  And to make matters worse, teachers [still] work off a grid that gives them an automatic 3% salary increase every year.  Even if the board votes for a 0% salary increase, each teacher moves one step on the grid each year and gets awarded a 3% increase.  THAT is how a "2% salary increase" actually translated to a 5% increase in the salary budget...because in addition to any annual approved increases, the board still had to pay for automatic "step" increases.

To make matters worse, for every 6-12 credits earned by a teacher, they get a "lane increase" that adds another 2% to their salary.

How many of you receive an AUTOMATIC raise of at least 3% per year..EVERY year?  We thought so.
So, what the Governor did was to force districts and school boards to do what we all wonder why they hadn't done on their own.  After all...it's all for the children...right?

Act 10 cut revenue limits and then made rules for public employees to all pay a specific share of their retirement contributions and health insurance benefits.  Most districts rushed to use the "tools" which Walker provided.  Duh!!! They had too!  Without those savings, and with the reduced revenue caps, it was comply or cut staff (hello...Milwaukee?).  If only these school boards had done this on their own, maybe we wouldn't be in this position now.

In the end, nobody likes bully tactics.  So the way things were done was wrong.  We do not agree with Walker and his Act 10 in entirety. But something had to be done.  The state was writing checks it couldn't cash.  School districts were spending money like they printed it themselves.  Where else do the employees (e.g., district administration) earn more than the CEO (State Superintendent Tony Evers), the Governor, or even the President of the United States?  Yes, we have district administrators in this state that earn more than the President.  That doesn't make sense.

Walker is not good for this state.  He had a couple of good ideas, but the same can be said for some of history's greatest screwballs and monsters.  When one considers his absolute disregard for union rights,  the cronyism, his business interests, his sugar daddies, his lack of transparency, and the spectre of the John Doe probe, we need a do-over.  But, what we do NOT need is to go back to the way things were, either.

EVERYONE needs to be paid a fair wage and be treated equitably.  We cannot tolerate the way workers belonging to the former Local 60 have been treated....perennially forced to accept the short end of the stick.  School districts have always balanced their budget on these peoples' backs...the ones who can least tolerate the load.  We need to pay teachers a fair and decent starting wage (raise the floor), but at the same time, we can't have kindergarten teachers or elementary school "librarians" earning over $90,000 either.  We need a salary cap...just like in major league sports.  Statewide...hell, nationally...we need to rethink the compensation given to school district administrative staff.  Sure they are important in molding our children's futures.  But doctors and nurses save lives...and can be paid less than the average administrator.

2012 is  huge year for this school district, this state, and this country.  We have a number of major decisions at stake.  And we have this one chance to get it right.

Teachers....we appreciate what you do.  But please remember that you are paid for working only 9 months per year.  You can try to rationalize that if you like, but every worker can make the claims you do.  Do you honestly think that you are the only people that work "for free" on nights/weekends...or all summer?  Really? Now is the time for EVERYONE to GET REAL.

Happy New Year.  May 2012 be brighter...a LOT brighter...than 2011.