Final Thoughts on the Budget
I’ve been refraining from a final analysis on the budget for a couple of reasons. First of all, I’ve been heavily invested in the budget process for months. I’m tired of it. I was worn out and needed to recharge my batteries a bit. Second of all, I needed a bit of time to sit back, gain some perspective, and think it through. But now I’m ready to offer a few final thoughts.
Largely, I think that Brian Fraley got it right. As a conservative, I detest this budget. It spends far too much. It taxes too much. It fails to fix any of the fundamental reasons for our out of control government. It includes too much pork. And the unconstitutional raid on the PCF is unconscionable. I would not have voted for this budget and I applaud those from both parties who voted against it.
But it could have been far worse. Wisconsin has passed worse budgets. The governor’s original budget was worse. And the Senate’s budget was scary worse. It’s not a perfect budget. It’s not even a good budget. It’s a bad budget. But it could have been a horrible, no good, very bad budget. I guess that’s kind of a victory. Sort of.
On the bright side, politically speaking, the budget process destroyed the Senate. The Democrats completely overreached on their version of the budget and managed to make themselves completely irrelevant in the process. Then they walked away with the conviction that they didn’t overreach enough, and changed leadership mid-term. I suspect that we can look forward to a lot more overreaching by the Senate that will server Doyle well by making him look moderate, but continue to put the Senate on the sidelines of governing.
Here’s another thought to ponder…I am certain that this budget would have been worse had the Republicans controlled the Senate. Sad, but true. Given the history of Republicans when they controlled both houses of the legislature, I have little faith that they would have passed a fiscally conservative budget. But the radical Senate budget coupled with the revolt of fiscal conservatives in the Assembly forced the Assembly leadership to deal from a hard line. Kudos to those fiscally responsible legislators who were steadfast in opposing the worst elements of all of the various budget proposals.
I guess that’s it. On to the budget repair bill.
I agree with you, but I’m still really ticked off. The whole thing reeks of back room deals and underhanded politics—on both sides of the aisle. I’m just so sick of these wimpy moderates calling themselves Republicans and voting for crappy budgets.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on October 29, 2007 at 2214 hrs
I’m a state employee… you want to know how scary the budget could get, you should see things from my end.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on October 29, 2007 at 2325 hrs
Cagekicker,
Why don’t you quit? Nobody wants you to suffer.
I want you to get the same raise that I get - even when nobody where I work got one for the last two years.
I want you to get the same health insurance I get. My plan is good, but I pay my share of it which comes to $250 a month for my family.
I want you to get the same retirement benefit I get.
My employer treats me pretty well. I work in a tough industry (tool and die). It’s competitive but we are staying busy. When the orders come in I will work from 7:00AM to 9:00PM. I will work Saturdays and Sundays, even Columbus Day.
I am sure you have it rough. I am soooo greatful for your sacrifice or whatever you call it.
You must work for the Dept of Corrections based on the name you used here. I don’t know of any state zoo’s so I assume that you are talking about prisons.
Yes. I am sure your job is hard. If you don’t like the conditions, the money or the benefits, then please quit. The gates will stay shut and the well fed thugs will be just fine. All will be well with the world.
The rest of us really don’t want to hear about your problems.
Hell. Until the call it the prison bureau or something equally cheery, I cannot even call it serious work.
Have a nice day.
Jim
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on October 29, 2007 at 2350 hrs
Wow… what can I say to that?
Yup, I work in a prison. Yup, my benefits package is pretty good. Yup, my retirement is decent. What I’d like to know is, what prompted the personal attacks, Jim? Have you done time? Have I personally wronged you at some point?
I’m sure the tool and die industry is hard work, and I’m sure that on a good day, I don’t put in near the same amount of labor that you do. My hat’s off to you.
Now, here comes the “however”... On a bad day in Corrections, I don’t think anyone can say that we’ve got more than we deserve. I’ve been hit. I’ve had urine and feces thrown at me. I’ve had every name in the book thrown my way, and still been expected to conduct myself as a professional. I’ve seen friends carted off to the hospital. I’ve gone weeks without seeing my family for more than a few minutes here and there.
Don’t preach to me or try to suggest that I’m bitching about my job. If I thought it was that bad, I would quit, and believe it or not I’d be able to figure that out without any prompting from you.
Save your self righteous indignation, Jim. It sounds like you’re the one who’s not happy with his lot in life. Hey, maybe I could help you get a job in Corrections.
My comment wasn’t so much about airing “my problems”, as agreeing with the no win situation we have with the budget. If you don’t want to hear what I have to say, then don’t read it. It’s a blog, Jim… people are going to continue to post their opinions regardless of your irrational outbursts.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on October 30, 2007 at 0014 hrs
You know, there’s some truth on both sides here.
There are a lot of state employees who are grossly overpaid. But there are also a lot of state employees who are also underpaid.
Of course, Jim is right to say that anyone who is unhappy with their lot in life can always move on and find something else to do. That’s universally applicable, whether you’re employed in the public or private sector.
A lot of people who work for the state genuinely like their jobs, and would probably stick around even if it weren’t for the retirement package or the health care. Those are nice perks, to be sure.
On the flip side, most state employees don’t have the freedom to ask their boss for a raise, because their boss isn’t authorized to give them. Most state employees can’t get a sizable increase in salary without being reclassified into a different position. Just like a lot of private sector employees, state employees have scraped by with zero or one or two percent increases in recent years.
It’s not a sob story. I’m not preaching some tale of woe about working for the state. It has benefits and drawbacks, just like working for any other employer.
What I can’t understand is exactly what our friend the corrections officer points out. You never hear public sector employees crapping on the private sector with such broad-based generalizations. Although trust me, I have friends in the private sector who will tell me Dilbert-esque stories until the cows come home. The private sector is also filled with employees who milk the system, take long lunches, kiss a lot of ass to get promotions they don’t deserve, dump their work off onto their colleagues, and waste their employer’s money. But it’s also filled with a lot of honest people and hard workers.
There’s very little difference in terms of the private and public sector when it comes to the quality of workers that populate their ranks. But the bitching and moaning that comes from some in the private sector is almost laughable, it’s just so absurd.
Jim, I have no doubt your job is hard. Most of my extended family has worked in paper mills or factories or in other blue collar trades. It’s hard work. I respect what you do. I’m sure this corrections worker sincerely does too. But your juvenile pot shots at a guy who goes to work to help keep your family safe - you think maybe you should show just a little bit of gratitude for that? This guy gets hit by urine bombs so you don’t have to defend your family in addition to working 60-hour weeks. Cut him some slack. Show him some respect.
And if you’re still pissed off about your own lot in life, take his advice and find a job working for the state. Then you can find out firsthand that it’s got its ups and downs too.
Posted by Recess Supervisor on October 30, 2007 at 0134 hrs
<off topic> Sounds like the inmates are running the asylum in our department of “corrections”.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on October 30, 2007 at 0850 hrs
After touring the prison in my district, I’ve come to appreciate the work the corrections officers perform daily. Caught in a catch 22, they’re expected to enforce the rules, protect the public, protect the inmate from himself and others, and deal with the warm, fuzzy policies of the liberal types that run the “programming.” Tough job for not a lot of pay—good benefits, though.
Same for the Southern Center and other state institutions for developmentally disabled. Touring them really opened my eyes to the daily challenges and threats to their physical safety they endure. No doubt these guys do it for the love of their work, cuz at $8.50/hr. it’d be tough to take for long.
I wish that they could have spent more money on those folks and cut back on the paper pushers…..
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on October 30, 2007 at 0932 hrs
But it could have been far worse. Wisconsin has passed worse budgets. The governor’s original budget was worse. And the Senate’s budget was scary worse. It’s not a perfect budget. It’s not even a good budget. It’s a bad budget. But it could have been a horrible, no good, very bad budget. I guess that’s kind of a victory. Sort of.
I see your point Owen, so I’m not attacking your message… Just “in general” this kind of talk reminds me of when the packers sucked… And people would have to ‘search’ for a silver lining. IE “they didn’t get blown out” or “they were in it at the end”. Its loser talk. And it just shows how little victories aside, the general tide continues to ROLL for bigger government.
It amazes me that lib’s aren’t the happiest people on earth. Looking at the growth of government, its ALWAYS going their direction. Maybe not as fast as their freedom uncaring minds would wish, but…
You never hear public sector employees crapping on the private sector with such broad-based generalizations. Although trust me, I have friends in the private sector who will tell me Dilbert-esque stories until the cows come home. The private sector is also filled with employees who milk the system, take long lunches, kiss a lot of ass to get promotions they don’t deserve, dump their work off onto their colleagues, and waste their employer’s money.
And the reason for ALL of that is that you have a choice where you spend your money in the private sector. You have no choice when sending in your taxes.
THAT is the critical difference and THAT is why its VALID that people criticize the parts of the public sector that they don’t see as efficient and good stewards of OUR tax money.
In the private sector you have ALL the power. You drive down the street and see some contractor working on your neighbors house, sitting on their tailgates, taking smoke breaks every 5 minutes, doing a crappy job… You don’t hire them for your house.
You walk into Best Buy to buy a TV and don’t get good service because the employees are over shooting the shit by their computer… You walk out the door and go to Circuit City (or sears, or walmart, or radio shack, or american, or Colders)
In a corporate world, companies full of lazy do-nothings that suck from the company spigot without pulling their fair share would almost certainly end up with a higher cost structure (unless they do other things better) and in a competitive market they open the door for other providers to make a better profit at lower price. THAT is competition.
THAT’S why its not valid for public employees to play the moral equivalence game with the private sector. Because private sector, you control your money. Public sector you don’t. When you have a choice, its a whole different thing.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on October 30, 2007 at 1015 hrs
So by that statement, you’re saying that you don’t think civil servants are paying the same taxes as those in the private sector? I’m can tell you with all certainty that we do.
In civil service, we also have a few more restrictions on us, at least in my area. No one cares if the guy building your neighbor’s house has a felony arrest record. If the guy building your neighbor’s house doesn’t feel he’s being dealt with in good faith, he has the right to strike.
I’m all for a citizen’s right to criticize where their tax money goes, but that doesn’t mean take potshots at the people who are doing the work in the trenches. They’ve got nothing to do with how the money’s spent, they’re just showing up for work and doing their jobs like everyone else.
And the private sector isn’t any better, work ethic wise. My wife works in the private sector, and I hear stories from her that make me wonder where the bigger slackers really are.
Your concept of the “moral equivalence game” is one sided, pilot. I’m not saying you’re wrong, because from your perspective you can only comment on what you see. I’m just saying that the other side of the coin is still on the same coin.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on October 30, 2007 at 1030 hrs
There is no doubt that some state employees work very hard, I would think prison guards are right up there. They have to deal with the scum of the earth. I deal with some of them daily and have been there victim in 18 burglaries, robberies etc.
On the ohter hand I have had to work with people in the toughest jobs, try night nurse in a nursig home or waitress in a busy greek restaurant. Work some of the 11 hour days as a cement finisher, hod hauler etc.
There are many more. The question is: should our public employees have better salaries, job security, pensions, vacations and bennies than the average Wisconsinite? The answer is no and that is where our money goes.
Thank God that Sen. Dale Schultz and Kevin Gilkes were not running that budget debate, we would have capitulaited in March and tried to add things on to the damn thing.
Sign up for the weekly Wisconsin Conservative Digest email newsletter at widigest.com. We have lot of excellent thought provoking ideas and issues, all with the author’s names on them.Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on October 30, 2007 at 1114 hrs
Dohnal, I agree with you totally, believe it or not. I just hope that in balancing out the benefits to put state employees more in line with the other jobs out there, some thought is put into what was given up in the bargaining process to get some of those benefits.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on October 30, 2007 at 1119 hrs
It’s your worst nightmare Bob - I am already plotting to take back the state Senate Majority and return my awesomeness to the state Senate Leadership. Wait until I get ahold of the next budget and push my liberal RINO agenda…and crush you.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on October 30, 2007 at 1202 hrs
It’s not a victory. Its not even a Pyrrhic victory. The already taxed-to-the-hilt citizens of the state are getting squeezed for more.
Its a loss, but it could have been a bigger loss.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on October 30, 2007 at 1211 hrs
See, it’s not win or lose….. It’s just about degrees of losing. How sad is it that in one of the highest taxed states in the country, Wisconsinites have started thinking that way?
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on October 30, 2007 at 1223 hrs
Its a loss, but it could have been a bigger loss.
Perhaps that was a better way to put it.
Posted by Owen on October 30, 2007 at 1626 hrs
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