Top Ten Reasons to Kill the Budget Repair Bill

10. "This bill will shatter relationships among educators and school leaders, undermining current innovations around teacher compensation, evaluation, and improvement. It will have a chilling effect on teacher recruitment and sends a terrible message about the value of public service." Tony Evers - Wisconsin Superintendent of Public Instruction

9. The bill allows "the Department of Administration to sell or contract for the operation of state heating, cooling and power plants without oversight from the legislature or the Public Service Commission." The Oshkosh Northwestern

8. Walker's budget repair bill, introduced last week, "would give the state Department of Health Services the authority to restrict eligibility, modify benefits and make other changes to Medicaid with less legislative review than required now. If the federal government didn't grant permission to make some of the changes, the state would drop at least 50,000 people from Medicaid next year." Wisconsin State Journal

7. "In our state, public employees represent a major portion of the purchasing power, tax base and involvement in the community. In some cities and towns, school districts are one of the major employers. By taking thousands of dollars from their pockets, it will be money that is not returned to circulation to buy your products and services." Gary Vance - Onalaska-Holmen Courier Life: Opinions

6. The Wisconsin Legislative Fiscal Bureau found that the labor provisions in the Budget Repair Bill which violate federal collective bargaining requirements could mean a loss of $46.6 million annually in federal transit aids to Wisconsin. Appleton Post Crescent

5. The Budget Repair Bill limits the scope of collective bargaining "which would remove the ability of school boards to use the bargaining process in ways that enhance local control." Janesville WI Board of Education letter to Governor Walker

4. The Bill repeals the basic right of Home Health Care workers, Family Child Care workers, UW Hospital and Clinic employees as well as UW faculty and staff to bargain collectively at all. Green Bay Press Gazette: Summary of Budget Repair Bill

3. The Bill creates a "two-tier collective bargaining system that treats law enforcement officers differently than our brothers and sisters in other public sector unions. We are all dedicated public servants. We each have unique duties and responsibilities important to making our communities better places to live, work and raise our families." Steve Lampada, President of the Kenosha Professional Police Association

2. Provisions of Gov. Scott Walker's budget repair bill that restrict collective bargaining blunt local government's ability to solve their economic problems. Oshkosh Deputy Mayor Jessica King and Winnebago County Executive Mark Harris
http://www.thenorthwestern.com/article/20110224/OSH0101/102240399/1168/OSH04/Local-leaders-speak-out-against-governor-s-union-plan?odyssey=navhead

1. "Labor unions helped build a strong middle class in Wisconsin. We will mount a strong defense against the 'Koch Brothers' playbook to kill unions.'" Forbes business page online. http://blogs.forbes.com/rickungar/2011/02/18/koch-brothers-behind-wisconsin-effort-to-kill-public-unions/

Source: Institute for Wisconsin's Future
(http://www.wisconsinsfuture.org/index.html)

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