Posted on 12/16/2010 9:27:44 AM PST by UB355
Madison — Democrats have adjourned an extraordinary session of the Legislature and officially given up on an unusual bid to pass labor contracts for tens of thousands of state workers in a lame-duck session.
Two top leaders for both Democrats and Republicans met briefly Thursday morning to adjourn the session on labor contracts. The session had technically been left alive Wednesday night after Democrats narrowly but dramatically failed to pass the agreements.
Outgoing Senate Majority Leader Russ Decker (D-Wausau) and Sen. Jeff Plale (D-South Milwaukee) crossed party lines to vote with Republicans to reject the contracts. The agreements then failed on 16-16 tie votes in the Senate, leading Democrats to depose Decker and name Sen. Dave Hansen (D-Green Bay) to serve as their leader for the final two weeks before Republicans take control of the Legislature.
In the Assembly earlier Wednesday, all but one of the 17 contracts passed 48-47, with the decisive vote cast by Chippewa Falls Independent Jeff Wood, who was released from jail on an intoxicated-driving conviction to make the vote.
The votes were a victory for Governor-elect Scott Walker and his fellow Republicans, who said the contracts should be left for them to deal with so they can extract concessions from the unions on pensions and health-care benefits. Otherwise, Walker said he would have to make deeper cuts in areas such as health care and education to address a budget shortfall of about $150 million through June and a gaping hole of up to $3.3 billion for the two-year period after that.
Senate Republican leader Scott Fitzgerald of Juneau said Thursday that the rejection of the contracts gives Walker an opportunity to start fresh with unions.
Most Democrats said approving the contracts running from July 2009 to June 2011 was the right course because they already are 18 months old and included no raises and $103 million in concessions. That includes 16 unpaid furlough days over two years - a 3.3% pay cut.
The session TECHNICALLY is still open and they replaced the Democrat Senate majority leader.
I am not calling this a victory until this session is truly ended AND they don’t try to sneak this through during this time.
The session was officially closed with no other business around 10:00 am
Kudos to Decker and Plale for doing the right thing. Of course,he’s not the Gov yet, so the Communist media in WI will say it’s Scott Walker’s fault merely for having been born.
MERRY CHRISTMAS TO US!!! I’m so happy!!!
Bye bye Blackjack Jim Doyle and all of your union thugs.
The public employee unions have been raping the American taxpayers for fifty years;about time they were forced to take some cuts.
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