Mr. Walker goes to Washington and gets bloodied

Gov. Scott Walker went to Washington D.C. to discuss how he is balancing the $3.6 billion budget deficit, but Democratic Congressmen used it to vilify the governor’s moves to limit most collective bargaining rights of public employees.

Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) asked Walker what savings to the state budget come from requiring public union’s hold annual certification votes.

Walker explained the he felt it was a matter of giving public workers the right to choose whether they wanted to remain in unions or not. But ultimately, he admitted that the provision had no effect on the state’s budget position.

Kucinich jumped on the answer and waved a copy of a Wisconsin Legislative Fiscal Bureau report that was used to determine what portions of the Budget Repair Bill were fiscal and non-fiscal. The report stated the collective bargaining and union operation changes were not fiscal.

“We are going through a great debate here,” Kucinich said. “Do we show respect to public employees and the work they do or do we auction government off to the highest bidder. Gov. Walker has done us a public service by exposing this mindset of auction off our services, bringing it to the public’s attention.”

When asked why he refused to give up his demand for collective bargaining cuts when unions agreed to the contribution requirements in what is now Wisconsin Act 10, Walker explained actions speak louder than words.

“Two statewide union leaders said they thought the unions would do it (the contributions), but the locals continued to settle contracts without the contributions included,” Walker said. “The state leaders couldn’t control the actions of their locals.”

Other Democrat representatives brought up the hiring of the 27-year-old son of a lobbyist to a high-level state office and demanded that Walker apologize for the situation; reviewed contributions to Walker’s campaign by third-parties; and targeted campaign statements that they felt were insincere. Walker said when he learned of hiring of Brian Deschane, he immediately asked his office to look into it and hire someone better qualified.

Rep. Bruce Braley (D-Iowa) continued to push for the apology, but was cut off by Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-California). He explained the members of the panel could speak about anything they wished during  their 5-minute time, but the witnesses – Gov. Walker and Gov. Peter Shumlin (D-Vermont) – didn’t have to answer off the topic of government debt and budgets.

Braley responded that if this committee’s role is to find examples of good government they should also look at questionable practices, such as cronyism. He requested the committee follow-up with another hearing to look into those practices at the state and local level.

Rep. Gwen Moore (D-Wisconsin), who is not a member of the committee, was allowed five minutes to address the governors. She spent most of her time chastising Walker.

“First, I don’t believe in your $3.6 billion structural deficit,” she said. “This deficit is simply a difference between the agency requests and your austure budget plans.”

She noted when Walker took office the LFB said there was a $121 million balance on the books and he immediately gave away $117 million of that in tax breaks. Then she asked him whether his cuts are just choices or necessity.

“Is it choice or necessity to cut the earned income credit for working parents,” she asked. “To end Medicaid coverage for dialysis or home health care. What does the expansion of school choice and taking $6,500 away from poor student to give to the rich have to do with the budget?  You have re-instituted the 30-hour workweek on W-2 recipients and are charging welfare recipients a $20 tax. You are moving $1 billion from education to highways.  Is that a choice or a necessity?”

A contrast in style

Walker and Gov. Peter Shumlin (D-Vermont) appeared before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform to discuss the choice or necessity in managing state and municipal budget debt. Issa (R-California) said Walker’s plan to eliminate collective bargaining rights from most public workers, “seems reasonable to those of us in Washington” considering unionized federal workers have no bargaining rights and already make health and pension contributions.

Walker opened with prepared comments, highlighting that Wisconsin faces a $3.6 billion structural deficit in the next biennium and that has not in favor of “cutting state aid to schools and other local governments – which forces massive layoffs, massive property tax increase or both.”

Instead he described his solution as a “progressive solution, in the best sense of the word” to hold the line on spending and find efficiencies in state government. He did tell the committee about the “tools” provided to municipal governments to find even more savings by lifting many of the collective bargaining issues to most of the state’s public employee unions. He added that making public employees contribute 5.8 percent toward their pensions and 12.6 percent to their health insurance premiums is a “protection to the middle class.”

Walker invoked his brother who works as a banquet manager and part-time bartender and contributes $800 towards his health insurance for his family.

“He would love a deal like the one I offered government employees,” Walker said. “I hear this all across the state. Most private employees are paying 20 percent (toward their benefits). Federal employees on an average pay 28 percent for health insurance and don’t have bargaining rights. These facts beg the question as to why the protesters are in Madison and Columbus and not in here (Washington D.C.).

“By nearly any measure, our requests are quite reasonable.”

Walker wrapped up his opening comments by saying his budget choices are a commitment to the future, so our children and grandchildren don’t have to face similar dire consequences.

Shumlin provided a different method for handing government shortfalls. He said Vermont was facing a $176 million debt when he took office in January and the first thing he did was to call a meeting with state union leaders. He even referred to one of his state’s leading agricultural products as a bargaining tactic.

“I used Vermont Maple Syrup instead of vinegar,” as he handed Walker a bottle of his state’s product. “People want to see reasonableness, compromise and smart people sitting down together and solving real problems.”

Those meetings resulted in Vermont state employees taking a 3 percent pay cut in each of the next two years, extending the age of retirement, increasing pension contributions and reducing health benefits.

Shumlin told the committee that he believes collective bargaining is a basic human right and he has seen how it has benefited the middle class worker.

“Who got us in this mess. Not the plow driver in a full white out,” Shumlin said. “My public employees didn’t get us there. And I won’t take away collective bargaining rights which made the middle class strong.”

Instead, Shumlin said he is targeting the rising costs of health care and implementing a single-payer health care system in his state, to reign in the budget. He would not expand on how he would reduce health care costs when asked by Republican congressmen, but Shumlin promised he would not do anything that would raise taxes in his state.

Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-District of Columbia) repeatedly asked Walker if he met personally with Wisconsin’s union leaders. Instead, Walker put the Director Gregory Gracz of the Office of State Employment Relations, in charge of speaking with the unions. He added that it is common practice for the OSER Director to handle those types of discussions.

Shumlin reiterated that he did meet personally with the union officials in Vermont.

Norton took the opportunity to give Walker some advice on employee relations, pointing to her working relationship with Rep. Issa.

“The Chair and I are on different sides of national and district issues,” she said. “Be whenever we disagree, I have always felt we can have a discussion. I want you to take the high road; call them in and mend some fences.”