We have some of the finest public servants in the country who truly care about the people they serve. This is not an attack on unions. Instead, it is a tough decision, which was made after acknowledging that, for years, Democrats and Republicans alike have avoided fixing our state budget problem.
Last fall, I heard from thousands of people across Dane, Columbia and Sauk Counties about bringing jobs and fiscal stability back to Wisconsin. In the last four years Wisconsin has increased spending by 14 percent and raised taxes by over $4 billion. During that time no growth occurred, we lost thousands of jobs and the state continued to endure multi-billion dollar budget deficits.
It’s clear that overspending and raising taxes hasn’t worked; it’s time to set a different course for our state. It would be impossible to deal with this situation without acknowledging that wages and benefits are a huge cost to the budgets of the state, local governments and school districts. Currently employee salary and fringe benefits comprise more than 60 percent of state government’s general purpose revenue operation costs, 43 percent of county and municipal budgets and about 75 percent of total school district expenditures.
Making reasonable changes to our collective bargaining laws will set the stage to finally bring government back in line with our citizen’s ability to pay for it. It will give governing units the tools they will need to manage the painful, but necessary, cuts that will be made in order to finally balance the state budget.
Teabagging The Left 