Cut my pay!

If you haven't been living in a remote cave near Tora Bora for the last week, you know that our new governor has declared war on state employees in the guise of a "budget repair bill."

Scott Walker has proposed drastic cuts to our pay (don't pretend increasing the amount we pay towards health care and retirement is anything but a pay cut). As I suggested, I think that this may be a reasonable approach to deep budget crisis that we face.

However, this is mostly a smoke-screen for busting the state unions and punishing state workers.. First, the amount we are talking about is a negligible part of the state budget. Second, if he were serious, the bill wouldn't exempt unions that supported him in the last election. Third, the gratuitous attacks on state employees wouldn't be part of his rhetoric. Why does a budget repair bill declare that state employees will never have a pay increase again?

Wouldn't a real solution involve working with state employee groups to find real solutions to the problems the state faces? Wouldn't a real solution have wages and benefits as part of a larger conversation about the path we are going to take as a state?

How about a conversation about the importance of education? Does anyone seriously believe that reducing the pay of teachers, both in K-12 and at the universities, will improve the outlook for Wisconsin's students? I have had several students in my office recently tell me that they have switched out of the college of education because the outlook for being a teacher is so grim. This idea and the rhetoric that goes with it will drive more people away.

It is clear that every study that controls for education and experience shows that state employees' salary and benefits are less than those of the private sector. We make choices to work in jobs we love in spite of the lower pay. Walker wants to make that choice more difficult. Counting on finding idealistic, high quality educators who will accept the abuse heaped upon them by the governor and the legislature is a foolish bargain with our future.

I am afraid that this is only the first step towards kicking our children down the road to balance the budget. It frightens me to think about what the budget proposal will hold in just a week!

No one may be reading, but I had to say something!!