If Dave Gray of Ripon, Wisconsin, is right – and I believe he is – there’s a relatively simple way to stop the movement to recall Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker in its tracks. And perhaps even a way to send recall activists to jail.
To borrow a quote from the A-Team, “I love it when a plan comes together.”
As I wrote previously, here and here, Wisconsin recall laws are so flawed that voter fraud on a massive scale is possible – even likely – when it comes to signatures on Walker recall petitions.
That’s because recall supporters are publicly urging Wisconsinites to sign these petitions more than once, even though only one signature is supposed to count under state law. A Milwaukee man evidently took this advice to heart and signed 80 times.
We couldn’t be prouder of our own Bruno Behrend, who recently drove up to a Tea Party Rally in Sheboygan, WI (otherwise known as “real America”) to talk about school reform — getting the crowd excited about breaking up the government education complex.
From Ann Althouse comes word the Wisconsin Teaching Assistants’ Association (TAA) voted last week against seeking state certification as a union for the purpose of collective bargaining.
TAA is the first public employee union known to have held a union certification vote and the first one known to have voted against certification.
* About 90 matters, mostly death threats against state officials, were referred to the Division of Criminal Investigation of the Wisconsin Attorney General’s Office. About a dozen remain open cases. About 30 of the 90 threats were directed at Democrats. About the same number were directed at Republicans.
Some of the most violent-sounding threats were directed at Republican Gov. Scott Walker, whose budget repair bill provisions limiting collective bargaining for state employees and teachers to wages and requiring employee contributions to health care and pension benefits provoked union protests. Some threats out-of-state were investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
A few weeks ago Connecticut passed a budget containing $2.6 billion in tax hikes on alcohol, tobacco, hotels, sales, and estates. At that time Governor Dannel Malloy “demanded” $2 billion in concessions from the public employee unions. Fast forward to this week…On Tuesday it was announced that the Governor only got $1.6 billion in concessions spread over the next two years and has precariously locked state taxpayers into a sweetheart union agreement that will run until 2022.
In short, the state agreed to take more money from the pockets of state’s taxpayers in order to further protect government employees and the public union’s political coffers for years to come.
Union negotiator Dan Livingston was quoted in the Connecticut Post as saying that “the toughest concession, in terms of money coming directly out of workers’ pockets, is a two-year wage freeze worth $138.8 million in 2012 and $309.5 million in 2013. In return, Malloy agreed to three percent raises each of the following three years and a four-year, no-layoff guarantee for current SEBAC employees.”
Typical leftist civility at the Wisconsin protests
Below is a letter I received from Muriel Coleman, a fellow member of the board of directors of American Conservative Union. She gives a first-hand account of what happened, and is still happening, in Madison, Wisconsin.
Muriel also provides information on how to make contributions to individuals and organizations in the state who are fighting back against the public sector unions.
To be clear:The Heartland Institute does not endorse or oppose candidates for public office, and Ms. Coleman’s letter does not reflect the views or position of The Heartland Institute. [click to continue…]
In the aftermath of this winter’s union protests in Madison and related events, Wisconsinites are beginning to do the math, and they don’t like the huge numbers one single bit.
Protest-related costs are huge – and taxpayers across the state are on the hook for them.
Protesters gathered in February and March at the state Capitol in Madison over the elimination of collective bargaining for state employee benefits in Republican Gov. Scott Walker’s budget repair bill.
They occupied the Capitol building 24/7 for several weeks, demonstrating, eating, sleeping, and microwaving meals in the Capitol building rotunda. They taped or otherwise adhered protest signs to marble walls in the interior. The building is an historical landmark, and its marble walls must be cleaned by hand with special solvents. The state architect says art conservators would do much of the work; they charge $100 per hour. He says assessing the damage alone would cost $500,000.
Firebrand Ann Coulter isn’t everyone’s cup of Tea. I like her, because she does bring the real as she sees it. And her writing is … let’s say … a vigorous read. I try not to miss her latest.
Fineman said that while Ronald Reagan appealed to union members, their “sons and daughters” were “having second thoughts.”
This could be true — but only if the sons and daughters of construction workers and miners, clinging to their guns and religion, grew up to be public school teachers, clinging to Earth Day and Kwanzaa.
I’m amazed that “smart-guy” pundits in Washington don’t get this.
Part of my job as director of communications for The Heartland Institute is to defend the organization when attacked by the left. If I responded to every salvo — especially the spittle-flecked variety found on most blogs — I’d do little else in my every waking moment.
Of course, I’m of the mind that if the statists on the left aren’t attacking us and our advancement of free markets, I need to be better at my job of promoting our principles. Happily (I guess), that’s not the case.
A fellow named Max Garland from Eau Claire, Wisconsin took to the letters-to-the-editor page of The Wisconsin State Journal in Madison today to express his displeasure that the paper quoted one of our scholars in its coverage of the current state of affairs at the Capitol. I reproduce it below, and will rebut below that:
Teachers’ unions in Wisconsin are scurrying to win school district of teachers union contracts before Gov. Scott Walker’s budget repair bill gets approved.
Currently, teachers and other state employees pay six percent of their health care premiums and virtually nothing toward their pension costs. Under Walker’s bill, they would pay 12.8 percent of their health care premiums and 5.8% of their salaries toward their pensions.
But if they able to renew their contracts before the bill goes into effect, all Walker bets are off.
If Dave Gray of Ripon, Wisconsin, is right – and I believe he is – there’s a relatively simple way to stop the movement to recall Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker in its tracks. And perhaps even a way to send recall activists to jail.
