Walker Signs Bill on Public Unions
Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reports:
Gov. Scott Walker signed the bill Friday that repeals most collective bargaining by public employee unions.
He signed the bill privately in the morning and will hold a news conference later in the day to tout the signing and talk about the tumultuous past few weeks. Also Friday, Walker directed the Office of State Employment Relations to rescind layoff notices because the Legislature had passed the bill.
"The Legislature helped us save 1,500 middle-class jobs by moving forward this week with the budget repair," Walker said in a statement. "The state will now be able to realize $30 million in savings to balance the budget and allow 1,500 state employees to keep their jobs. 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."
The letter rescinded layoff notices Walker issued last week when the bill was stalled. Employees could have been laid off in early April.
Rep. Jennifer Shilling (D-La Crosse) noted in a news release the bill did not address all of the $137 million shortfall in the current fiscal year. Lawmakers still need to close a $99.5 million gap before June 30.
"How has our financial condition changed so drastically that layoffs are no longer imminent?" Shilling said in a statement. "I'm glad that Walker decided to rescind the layoff notices, but public employees should have never been used as his political pawns. The level that Republicans have stooped to in order to pass this sham of a bill is disgraceful."
The state Capitol, meanwhile, opened for business at 8 a.m. Friday, with relatively few protesters in attendance. It was unclear when Senate Democrats, who had been staying away in Illinois, would return, or whether some of they had returned to Wisconsin.
On Thursday, Republican lawmakers in the Assembly on Thursday gave Walker his bill.
Legislators voted 53-42 along largely partisan lines to pass the budget-repair proposal, but only after police carried demonstrators out of the Assembly antechamber.
But even with the battle won by Republicans, a wider war now remains for both sides, one expected to be fought in the courts and through recall efforts against 16 state senators.
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