WI GOP Senate: Dissing the Dems, education, and "forsaking" the next generation

Like ducks at a shooting gallery, Democratic amendments to the Walker budget--this time in the Senate--are being shot down one after another (watch the carnage at WisEye.org).   Yesterday (and early this morning) Assembly Democrats went 0 for about 40 in getting any amendments into the budget.  Now it's the Senate's turn.  So far, the first amendment (read highlights here), which included repealing provisions that loosen child labor laws, was tabled by GOP Senators.

It was the second amendment, though, that brought the declarations of Sen. Robert Jauch (D-Poplar) that as far as responsibly educating the next generation the Republican majority was "forsaking them, forgetting them," calling the Republican plan the "most anti-education budget" in the history of the state.

Instead of the unfathomable $800+ million cuts to education, the second amendment asked for repeal of expansion of choice/vouchers, restoring $356 million to K-12 funding, repealing elimination of funding for programs dealing with students with gifted and talented needs as well as numerous other useful and successful educational grants and programs.  Jauch provided examples from rural districts in which the educational gap will widen as a result of the new budget. He also suggested that $250+ million in corporate tax breaks could be better used in educating the children of people working in those corporations.

Jauch called out fellow Senator Alberta Darling (R-River Hills), saying she claims to have never voted for an anti-education budget, but, in essence, she was doing it up big time today.

Sen. Lena Taylor (D-Milwaukee) pointed out that with such cuts to education, Milwaukee would stand to lose $182 million, with none of Walker's "tools" to fix it because Milwaukee's teachers and elected officials came to their contractual agreement even before Scott Walker became governor.  Taylor claimed (and I can't see how anyone could dispute it), "We're setting up failure for the largest school district in the state."

Jauch said the amendment would counter the budget provisions that he termed, "Anti-public education, anti-teacher, and anti-Wisconsin values."

And then the GOP shot it down.

Info and quotes from Wis Eye Assembly Bill 40  televised debate, 6/16/11\

AMENDMENT UPDATE:
#3--Repeal changes to Badger/Family/SeniorCare: SHOT DOWN
#4--Increase transparency, reduce political appointees: SHOT DOWN
#5--Restore funding for commuity services: SHOT DOWN
#6--Increase funding for busing, pedestrian and bike projects: SHOT DOWN
#7--Restore funding for environmental issues (inc. recycling): SHOT DOWN
 #8--Repeal collective bargaining changes: SHOT DOWN
Visit the WisPolitics Budget Blog for great amendment summaries/updates

(10 PM): SENATE PASSES BUDGET (no amendments)

More slime from WI GOP: Call for "extraordinary session"

For only the tenth time (and the first since 1993), Wisconsin's Legislature will be meeting in "extraordinary session," this time to pass Walker's state budget.  Extraordinary session, according to the State Legislative Reference Bureau can be called by the Legislature to "focus its attention on specific legisltion it wants to expedite." 

And there's nothing the Republicans would love to do more than get this business-loving, people-hating budget passed (including, it now looks like, Walker's stripping of collective bargaining) before they could lose the Senate majority following this summer's recall elections.  In extraordinary session, regular rules can be suspended, and according to Rep. Mark Pocan (see Pocan's YouTube explanation in yesterday's post), debate and amendments can be limited, and Democracy, really, is stomped on.  Senate Chief Clerk Rob Marchant, however, says it would neither limit amendments or debate, but would allow quick preliminary approval from each house on the same day, and then only require a simple majority, instead of two-thirds, to advance the bill.  Regardless, this budget does not seem to require emergency-type passage.

 Assistant Assembly Minority Leader Donna Seidel (D-Wausau) said she was concerned about the use of the extraordinary session to pass the budget. “It appears to be part of their strategy that anything can happen and anything can be rushed through with little or no scrutiny,” she said (JS Online).

Yeah, it sure does look like that, doesn't it?

You can read a great summary of the "Budget Basics" from DefendWisconisn.org (thanks to Solidarity Wisconsin). Or, if you're well-versed in politispeak, you can review the entire budget here (thanks to Steve Hanson at Uppity Wisconsin).

Protestors will be out in force.  My union, WEAC, is calling for membership to join protests  (11AM on the Capitol Square and 5:30 PM at State Street corner) of a budget that includes severe cuts to education, local government, the environment, and the poor.

Oh, yeah, and collective bargaining.

Extraordinarily power-hungry, greedy, and compliant Republican legislators call for an extraodinary session.  Come to think of it, I guess that's not so extraordinary at all.

For an extraordinarily detailed and informative site about all things budgetary, check out the Wisconsin Budget Project (thanks to Becky and Mark for the link)

More GOP dirty tricks on tap as WI budget looms?

It promises to be a busy week in our state capital.  Perhaps even "extraordinary" (more on that later) as Walker's budget comes to the floor. Walker's right-hand puppet and chief alarmist, Administration Secretary Michael Huebsch (the man behind the collective bargaining bill) told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel last week, "We are anticipating, we are preparing for the height of what we saw in the early part of March. A mass crowd that actually rushed the Capitol." Huebsch continued, "I am preparing for that. I hope we never get to that again."

The protests have been honest reaction to dishonest practice.  And that about which Huebsch espouses would not happen without things such as illegal meetings, legislation passed in the middle of the night, content of bills not shared (with the populace or even with other legislators, for goodness sakes).  The people of Wisconsin are too intelligent, too dedicated, too rooted in the tradition of fairness throughout our state's history not to protest against injustice.

But it sounds like the Republicans may reach into their bag of dirty tricks again, through something called "extraordinary session," in which normal channels of debate and legislative process can be circumvented to rush through legislation. Here's the Friday video blog of State Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Madison) with a great explanation (thanks to Jenny at WEAC's facebook):

So don't worry Mike Huebsch, there will be protests, just as there were several dozen protestors at a Walker business schmooze on Friday, just as dozens of souls camp in Walkerville every night in our capital.  How intense those protests will be, however, I think will pretty much depend on you and your friends, especially if they put in collective bargaining restrictions.

You know, it's possible the protests just may be extraordinary.

WISGOP says Do You Like Me Now?

Like a big brother that beats you up and then bribes you so he won't get in trouble, Wisconsin's fine Republican legislators are offering crumbs, really, now that their recall butts are on the line.  After the merciless pounding the Walker-run legislature gave worker rights in this state (rights, Walker finally admitted under oath , had no direct fiscal bearing on the budget, but rather were union-busting), Republican legislators are saying--all of the sudden now that recall papers have been served up-- "Hey, you know what?  Um, maybe this part of the budget could be changed, after all."

If the Democrats had not delayed the quorum for the budget-repair bill, and got people thinking about and actually reading things, for goodness sakes, the Republicans would have passed the 2011-2013 budget, no questions asked  (Rep. Robin Vos, R-Rochester gushed about it), as they would have budget-repair.

So now GOP legislators, even those that are--surprise--up for recall, are "breaking" with Walker and making nice with Wisconsinites through lip-service against budget items including Walker's removing income limits for school voucher families, splitting UW from the UW system, removing recycling, and using general funds for transportation.  

But really it's just b.s. window-dressing.  The non-partisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau says there are still "more than 40 non-fiscal policy items in the governor's budget...proposals that aren’t absolutely essential to balancing the books,"  something that Walker campaigned against doing (Superior Telegram, 4/27).  And there are still numerous, equally-vile budget items remaining (drastic cuts to education and communities, for instance).  Oh, yeah, and Republicans may insert the court-stalled, anti-collective bargaining bill into the budget, as well.

Make sure your friends and neighbors don't fall for these little bribes to win back public favor.

The damages the Republican legislature has inflicted, and will inflict, on this state are far too serious to let them buy us off.

Happy Earth Day, Gov. Walker

Gaylord Nelson was a champion for conservation in Wisconsin.  As one of Wisconsin's US Senators he started Earth Day (April, 22, 1970),and he made numerous contributions to protecting our environment, including legislation that bought about the Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act.  He was instrumental in overseeing the preservation of thousands upon thousands of acres for Wisconsin parkland, including the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore of Lake Superior.   And he always believed that Wisconsin's greatest resources were its people and its natural resources.  It is a rich legacy for which the late, great statesman will always be known.

Scott Walker, unfortunately, has carved his own legacy.  Walker has promoted business at the expense of Wisconsin's environment.  Some of his proposals have included relaxing standards for water pollution (reducing weed-stemming phosphorous restrictions and run-off contamination), essentially eliminating farmland preservation, increasing road-building instead of promoting public transit (making cuts that will reduce public buses and halting the Madison-Milwaukee high speed rail), diverting money to transportation from a fund to clean up leaking underground gas tanks, and reducing incentives for putting land into conservation. Walker also requested changes in some wetlands protection (coincidentally on a parcel to be built upon by a major donor) and the elimination of subsidies for community recycling programs (while maintaining tipping fees charged for landfill use, which had been used to help fund those same recycling programs).

And that's just in his first four months.

Senator Nelson wouldn't recognize Wisconsin on this Earth Day.

Sadly, neither do I.