Wisconsin recall primary today

www.todaystmj4.com/news/local/150533975.html

Background:

On March 11, 2011, Wisconsin's Governor Scott Walker signed the 2011 Wisconsin Act 10, a controversial bill that limits the collective bargaining power for the state's public employees (except for firefighters, police, and State Patrol Troopers), and require state employees to pay more for their health care and pensions. The new law is labeled “An Act relating to: state finances, collective bargaining for public employees, compensation and fringe benefits of public employees, the state civil service system, the Medical Assistance program.”

[Accessed at http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/03/11/walker-signs-stripping-unions-collective-bargaining-rights/#ixzz1GUAXo0rB; the actual statute can be accessed at http://www.jsonline.com/news/statepolitics/118677754. html, by clicking the link to the pdf version]

Simultaneously canceling 1,500 scheduled public employee layoffs, Governor Walker remarked, “While tough budget choices certainly still lie ahead, both state and local units of government will not have to do any mass layoffs or direct service reductions because of the reforms contained in the budget repair bill. The reforms contained in this legislation, which require modest health care and pension contributions from all public employees, will help put Wisconsin on a path to fiscal sustainability.”

On March 18, 2011, Dane County Circuit Judge Maryann Sumi granted a restraining order, temporarily preventing the Wisconsin Secretary of State from publishing the law, which remained the subject of bitter controversy and litigation, as this supplement went to press. [http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/19/us/19wisconsin.html] Less than a week after the judge issued the TRO, the governor defied the court and permitted the publication of the new law in the Wisconsin code. [http://www.outsidethebeltway.com/wisconsin-defies-court-order-publishes-collective-bargaining-law/]

On June 14, 2011, the Supreme Court ordered the reinstatement of Governor Walker’s bill. The court overruled the restraining order granted by Sumi, finding that the Legislature did not violate the Wisconsin Constitution, the committee of lawmakers was not subject to the state’s open meetings law, and therefore did not violate that law when it approved the governor’s bill and allowed the Senate to take it up. The court ruled that Sumi’s ruling exceeded her jurisdiction and was in the void ab initio, or “invalid from the outset.”

However, Chief Justice Shirley Abrahamson dissented, writing that the majority ruling “reached a predetermined conclusion not based on the facts and the law, which undermines the majority's ultimate decision… make their own findings of fact, mischaracterize the parties' arguments, misinterpret statutes, minimize (if not eliminate) Wisconsin constitutional guarantees, and misstate case law, appearing to silently overrule case law dating back to at least 1891.”

While Republicans praised the court’s decision, Democrats decried it for the court’s finding that lawmakers do not have the follow the open meetings law, as the committee did not give the required 24 hours notice prior to the meeting, essentially saying that the Legislature is above the law.  (Source: http://www.jsonline.com/news/statepolitics/123859034.html)

As a result of the new bill, the city projected savings of at least $25 million a year – and as much as $36 million in 2012 – from health care benefit changes it didn't have to negotiate with unions. Still, in March of 2012 union supporters from around the world gathered in Wisconsin to rally for the governor’s recall, and a record number of educators retired after the bill was signed into law. The Wisconsin state pension fund received 18,780 retirement applications from state and local governments and school districts in 2011, representing a 79 percent increase from the average in each of the previous seven years. (Sources: http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/scott-walkers-collective-bargaining-bill-working_582151.html and http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/09/scott-walker-anti-union-law_n_1335658.html)

As this 2013 Supplement went to press, the governor was faced with an unprecedented recall election.  On March 30, 2012, the state’s election commission ruled that the governor’s adversaries had met the requirements for the recall vote, which was scheduled for June 2012.