BILLIONS SAVED!

BILLIONS SAVED! (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel/Frazer Chronicle)



I've written about this sensitive issue on several occasions, and although I've read volumes about the subject, I still have mixed feelings regarding the validity of my feelings. You see, when a person is trying his level best to understand all aspects of an issue, it's hard to make a "snap judgment". Politicians on the other hand, look for any movement of a "core" issue, pointing to that movement as proof positive that their agenda is working, and good for the locals, state, or federal government.



Most politicians do not possess a thought process that looks past the black and white of an issue, to the more complex and involved understanding of an issue. Most people, today, no matter the party "jump on the partisan band wagon", supporting "whatever" whole-heartedly.



Raising taxes is never viewed as a good thing, every politician worth his salt, wants to avoid raising taxes however and whenever possible. The sad, jumbled up fact of the matter, when politicians consider raising taxes has a simple answer.....government must raise taxes to do the business of government. This opinion is not hard to understand. Compare your house to the county or state that you live in, if you don't have enough taxed money to fix the roads, keep the street lights on at night, or enough money to pay the police for protection, you lose all of these benefits.



When Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker talks about saving Wisconsin a billion dollars during his little more than a year in office, "on the surface" the statement sounds great. But when one considers the drop in service, the cut in teachers, the cut in offered school programs and the attitudes of public workers.....Walkers programs have been a dismal and dangerous failure.



Scott "Sleepy" Walker faces a June re-call election from his foes in the Democratic Party and the state of Wisconsin electorate. The re-call will be a landslide in favor of the Democratic Party; the Republicans have been way too crude, over the top, and disingenuous with the facts.



I do not necessarily agree with the recall, but I understand how people could be up in arms with the Walker administration and the entire Republican Party and their "lock-step" stance on almost everything that they think say or do.



Most union state workers in Wisconsin, clearly 6 in 10, figured that they needed to be paying more for the health coverage as well as their pension benefits. The move by the Walker administration to implement these additional payments was an austerity move, a "tough love" move, a move necessary for the taxpayer to keep his tax sanity.



But the move was not going to be met by state workers with joy and understanding, not when you take over $4000 out of a person making $50,000 a year, or about 12% of a paycheck. Then came the real bomb shell, collective bargaining was stripped from state union workers contracts, a right that had been established by the late 1950's, what could Walker been thinking, talk about pouring salt in the wound.....WOW.



Then there's a savings of $226.3 million from higher pension contribution and $82.4 million saved from state workers paying more for their health insurance, $40.9 million dollar in programs, paid by the Federal taxpayers, "which may not be kept by Wisconsin."



$464 million in yearly saving from local government workers paying more for their pensions, again a possibility that all of the money saved might not be kept by the state. And another $65 million in savings this fiscal year on health coverage by raising employee payments, similar to co-pays for employees for non-preventive care.



There is also an undetermined amount of savings for requiring workers to have 5 years of service and at least two-thirds full-time employment to qualify for a state pension.



There are other listed savings, but in many cases, I find the results convoluted or unverified. When you make employees pay more for their benefit packages, there will be monetary savings for the government of that there is no doubt. But along with the austerity comes some other realizations that get completely lost in the message.



NO DOUBT:

Whenever you cut jobs, either through tough new pay plans, or outright firings, you initially save money. Some have said that the Walker plan will lead to a loss of close to 22,000 jobs. It is a fact that the state's public school system has lost almost 1500 teachers. All sorts of services have been cut or there has been a general "draw-down" of services.



By cutting taxes which the state government works with, there most certainly will be a loss of good, quality; high paying jobs.....it is a financial fact of life.



I'm not so sure that I would be "touting" programs that take away, first from workers wallets and then from the quality of services offered.....services most taxpayers want.



Without a single doubt the real problem with Wisconsin's fiscal problems has been the inability of her people to get involved, to remain involved, to understand the issues, and when some "J-bird" like Walker comes around, they don't even give the joker a chance.