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Print Email Share Comments RecommendRepublican Wisconsin state Sen. Glenn Grothman was chased around the state Capitol on Tuesday evening by dozens of pro-union protesters yelling
Showing posts with label Budget. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Budget. Show all posts
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Print Email Share Comments RecommendWisconsin Gov. Scott Walker issued notices to state unions Friday of possible layoffs beginning early next month after none of the 14 fugitive state Senate Democrats returned from Illinois to give the Republican majority the quorum it needed to vote on a spending bill.
Once the unions are notified, the layoffs could take effect in 30 days. State departments will have a couple weeks to develop layoff plans.
The unions were notified the layoffs could begin in early April, said Walker's spokesman Cullen Werwie, adding that the notices may be withdrawn if the Senate Democrats return to Wisconsin.
"Without Senate action within 15 days, individual employees may begin to receive potential termination notifications," Werwie said in a written statement.
The layoff notices, obtained by Fox News, do not specify how many employees would be affected. But Walker has said his administration would have to start preparing layoff notices for as many as 1,500 state employees so the state can start to realize the $30 million savings he had assumed would come from the concessions.
Senate Republicans voted Thursday to hold the missing Democrats in contempt and force police to bring them back to the Capitol. But the Democrats were still on the run Friday.
The legislation, which would strip most public-sector workers in the state of their collective bargaining rights, has led to nearly three weeks of protests -- some attended by tens of thousands of union supporters -- in and around the state Capitol, which was completely cleared of demonstrators late Thursday for the first time in 17 nights after a judge ordered the building closed during non-business hours.
Walker says the bill is needed to ease a deficit that is projected to hit $137 million by July and $3.6 billion by mid-2013. His proposal comes up with the money for this year in part by forcing state employees to pay for half the cost of their pensions and twice their current health care premiums -- concessions equivalent to an 8 percent pay cut.
With the labor bill stalled, Walker said he has to issue layoff notices starting Friday.
All state workers, except those at prisons, state hospitals and other facilities open around the clock, would be potential layoff targets, he said.
"I pushed it off as long as I could because I do not want to have layoffs," Walker said.
While Walker said he is actively working with some of the Democrats in hopes of striking a deal, he told The Associated Press in an interview Thursday that he won't compromise on the collective bargaining issue or anything that saves the state money.
"I can't take any of that off the table," he said. "We cannot tear apart this budget. We cannot put this burden on local governments. But if there are other ways they are willing to work with us to find a pathway back, I think that's what people want."
Democratic Senate Minority Leader Mark Miller confirmed there were talks with Walker, but he did not think they were close to reaching a deal.
The statewide teachers union and state workers unions have said they would agree to the benefit concessions -- as long as they retain collective bargaining rights.
But Walker argues that move is necessary to deal with $1 billion in cuts to school districts and local governments that he proposed separately as part of his budget plan for the next two years. He says schools and local governments would have a tough time making the necessary cuts if they have to negotiate with unions.
Fitzgerald signed orders Thursday finding the 14 missing Democrats in contempt and allowing the chamber's sergeant at arms to use police force to detain them if necessary. Fitzgerald says his orders are binding only if the senators return to Wisconsin.
Democrats say they haven't done anything illegal and couldn't be arrested.
"There are so many police supporting us, they might have a hard time finding one to bring us back," said Miller, one of the AWOL Democrats.
A memo provided by private attorney Jim Troupis, who was hired by the Senate Republicans and often works with the GOP, said the state Constitution gives them authority to act to compel attendance under its rules.
Once the senators do return, Fitzgerald said they could face reprimand, censure or even expulsion.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Senate Democrats could agree to a two-week resolution to keep government operating that contains $4 billion in spending cuts, but a long-term budget deal is still elusive, the Senate's top Democrat on the budget said Sunday.
"It is acceptable to me to have $4 billion in savings in a two-week package, sure. The makeup of that, you know, is up for discussion and negotiation. That negotiation is ongoing. And I'm confident we'll achieve conclusion on that," Sen. Kent Conrad told CNN's "State of the Union."
But Conrad, D-N.D., chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, said he's not willing to support the Republican proposal to chop $100 billion in spending for the rest of the fiscal year because it could cut employment rolls, which are already struggling under a near jobless recovery. He gave highway spending as an example of a place where Republicans want to cut back but could create more joblessness.
"Highway spending, which I think most everybody says is badly needed in this country, creates American jobs, and also makes America more competitive. Does it make sense to be cutting there? Many of us don't think so," he said.
Conrad pointed to a recent Goldman Sachs study that indicates that if you do that large cuts in government spending in the second and third quarter of this year could reduce economic growth 1.5 to 2 percent.
"That's a million jobs. So does that make sense when you -- one in every six Americans is unemployed or underemployed? I don't think so," Conrad said.
But Rep. Joe Walsh, R-Ill., said the Goldman analysis makes a fundamental flaw.
"Every dollar we take out of the public sector will go into the private sector, and it will go to grow the economy," he said in an interview that aired on ABC.
Congress has failed to secure a budget for the 2011 fiscal year, even though it began on Oct. 1, 2010. As a result, it has been spending for government expenditures at the 2010 level, which foresaw a $1.3 trillion deficit before it was even passed.
Now, with a $1.5 trillion deficit for this year, and an expected $1.65 trillion deficit in the budget proposed by President Obama for next year, lawmakers are realizing they must start looking beyond discretionary spending and focus on entitlements.
"If we're going to ultimately solve this problem, we're going to have to do much more than consider only 12 percent of the budget," Conrad said, adding that balancing the budget could take 10 years.
"The only way we are going to deal with this problem is a 10-year plan that is comprehensive," he said.
Speaking on NBC's "Meet the Press," Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, D-Mo., said a temporary agreement to extend the budget for two weeks doesn't recognize that the tax rate structure is the ongoing problem with balancing the budget. He said keeping down the top rate has "created this much more serious deficit situation going forward."
"We've been ignoring for years the reality of what has happened in the super rich level of income in this country. We should have several higher top tax brackets. It shouldn't stop at a couple hundred thousand dollars. We have incomes -- we have shortstops making $15 million who are paying the same tax rate as, you know, two UCLA married professors. This is outrageous. ...And so we're ignoring this massive revenue possibility in the high end of incomes in this country," he said.
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