Category: State budget

The UW-Madison doctors who wrote medical excuses for budget repair protesters without conducting a medical interview or checking patients? vital signs in the privacy of their offices seem irresponsible. These doctors should have their medical licenses reviewed by the proper authorities.

Gov. Scott Walker called for the missing senators to return so the budget bill could pass and provide local services more than $1 billion in aid during a press conference Wednesday.

The debt refinancing is the single biggest piece of Gov. Walker?s budget-repair bill, which aims to close a projected shortfall between now and June 30. It?s an idea that should have bipartisan support.

St. Paul, Minn. ? Faculty at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse campus have decided to go forward with a vote this week on whether to unionize, although the results might be rendered meaningless by Gov. Scott Walker?s proposal to eliminate their collective bargaining rights.

University of Wisconsin-Madison students didn?t have a normal class day, if they had class at all.

A proposal expected to be included in Gov. Scott Walker?s 2011-13 budget that could allow UW-Madison to withdraw from the UW System would skirt the group charged with system oversight, Board of Regents member Edmund Manydeeds said.

Another possible solution to the impasse over a bill taking away collective bargaining rights in Wisconsin has been rejected by the Republican Senate leader.

MADISON, Wis. — Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker has been lured into a conversation about his strategy in the state?s ongoing battle over union rights Wednesday by an online journalist pretending to a billionaire Republican donor.

As the state Assembly continued its marathon session in to the early morning hours of Thursday, Democrats came to the defense of correctional officers; one institution at a time.

Democracy can be messy. That doesn?t mean it has to be this messy. Governor, Democrats, clean it up. It takes a first step.

A vote to remove collective bargaining rights from public employees could happen as early as Wednesday night. Assembly Speaker Jeff Fitzgerald says he wants to take a vote by the end of the day.

Last Wednesday morning, I awoke to find a long, detailed e-mail from my mother, now in her seventies, in which she described arriving home from the Wisconsin State Capitol, in Madison, at one in the morning. She had waited, with my sister and hundreds of others, to testify before the State Senate?s Joint Finance Committee and register her opposition to the proposal by Governor Scott Walker, a Republican elected in November, to eliminate most collective-bargaining rights for state employees.

The University of Wisconsin System Board of Regents has called a special meeting Friday to discuss a plan to split the flagship campus from the rest of the UW System.

UW-Madison Chancellor Biddy Martin quietly backed the plan suggested by Republican Gov. Scott Walker?s administration. Officials said last week that they expected Walker to include more autonomy for UW-Madison and UWM when he presents his budget for the next two fiscal years later this month.

University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics – which doesn?t receive state money directly – would be barred from collectively bargaining with its roughly 5,000 union employees under Gov. Scott Walker?s proposed budget-repair bill.

The provision surprised health system executives.

“We did not anticipate and certainly did not request elimination of the right to bargain, and we have communicated this to the Governor,” Donna Katen-Bahensky, president and chief executive of the health system, wrote in an e-mail to employees on Friday.

In a televised speech Tuesday, Gov. Scott Walker called for civility and declined to back down from his tough stance with public employee unions.

He argued his budget-repair bill is ultimately about the state?s finances and economy – not worker rights. He also warned Democrats boycotting the Senate that they need to return to Wisconsin to prevent thousands of layoffs of state workers.

On Tuesday afternoon, the 12 members of Ohio?s Senate Insurance, Commerce and Labor Committee convened in a corner room on the second floor of the state senate building in Columbus. No vote or amendment was on the agenda, just a hearing on what is simply called Senate Bill 5. Outside the door, hundreds of protesters pressed into the halls and stairwells of the capitol as thousands more crowded the surrounding streets. They all wanted to testify.

The stalemate continued late into the night Tuesday as the state Assembly attempted to work through dozens of amendments proposed by Democrats ? most of them meant to stall the progress of Gov. Scott Walker?s controversial budget repair bill.

In a day that featured increased police presence at the Capitol, a “fireside chat” by the governor and a number of strategic maneuvers by the state Senate, the responsibility of actually moving Walker?s bill forward fell onto the shoulders of Assembly Republicans.

The expanded lobbying effort by the Koch brothers in Wisconsin raises red flags in particular because of a little discussed provision in Walker?s repair bill that would allow Koch Industries and other private companies to purchase state-owned power plants in no-bid contracts.

“It?s curious that the Kochs have apparently expanded their lobbying presence just as Walker was sworn into office and immediately before a budget was unveiled that would allow the executive branch unilateral power to sell off public utilities in this state in no-bid contracts,” says Lisa Graves, executive director of the Center for Media and Democracy.

MADISON (WKOW) — Governor Walker has yet to compromise on his budget repair bill that will eliminate collective bargaining rights for most state workers.

Tuesday?s session of the Wisconsin Assembly began at noon, and continued overnight well into Wednesday morning.

The State Assembly kept its debate going late Tuesday night over amendments to Governor Walker?s repair bill.

Gov. Scott Walker is warning if his budget repair bill doesn?t pass soon, state workers could start receiving layoff notices as early as next week.

Wisconsin?s 14 Democratic senators are being threatened with recalls and having their paychecks withheld because they?ve been hiding out of state since Thursday.

For the ninth consecutive day, protesters continued to march at the Wisconsin Capitol, fighting to preserve collective bargaining rights for public workers.

Gov. Scott Walker said failing to pass a bill stripping union rights for Wisconsin public workers would have “dire consequences.”

MADISON, Wis. — If Gov. Scott Walker and Republican legislators pass a union bill that restricts collective bargaining rights, some labor groups said a statewide worker strike is a very real possibility.

Anyone logging on at the state capitol?s wi-fi connection as a guest could not access defendwisconsin.org for a time Monday. Sachen Chheda, a former capitol tech worker and current Chairman of the Milwaukee County Dems, says the screenshot looked like an intentional blockage used by an older program with which he was familiar.

Things get a little heated at a Senate committee hearing Tuesday afternoon.

The state Assembly opened debate Tuesday around noon on Governor Scott Walker?s budget repair bill.

Governor Scott Walker took the case for his budget repair bill to the state last night.

As protestors settled in for another night sleeping in the Capitol rotunda, members of the Assembly continued work into the early morning hours. The Assembly started its floor session to debate the Governor?s budget repair bill just before noon on Tuesday. For the most part, members remained on the floor through the night as Democrats attacked the measure on several fronts.