Current Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker — and Wisconsin’s next governor — took another bold anti-tax stand by seeking across-the-board wage and benefit cuts for county employees.
Milwaukee County employees would bear a heavy burden of budget-balancing pain in County Executive Scott Walker’s proposed 2010 budget, with nearly $41 million in pay and benefit cuts.
The trims include a 3% across-the-board wage cut for all county workers, a new employee pension contribution of 5% of a worker’s salary, a boost in health care contributions and more furloughs.
The loaded language on the part of the Sentinel Journal implies his sympathies lie with the poor gummint workers, that they bear a heavy burden.
Rubbing my thumb and forefinger together, playing the World’s Smallest Violin just for them.
Walker’s comments are right on target:
With so many private sector workers seeing their wages and benefits frozen or cut, it is hard not to expect the same from those in government.
Not to mention jobs simply lost, due in no small part to bad economic policies eminating from Madison and Washington. It’s about time the government sector felt pain in the same way the private sector has. Why should they be sacrosanct and immune from the people living and working in the real world?
Maybe we could eliminate them or at least privatize them? Don’t forget this classic video from 2006 of county workers sleeping on the job as part of a WTMJ-TV (Channel 4) investigative report:
Here’s what will happen. The proposed cuts will have to be bargaind with da union and da County Board, which means it ain’t happening. But like in past years, Walker will no doubt veto the proposals from the crowd which has never seen a tax they didn’t hike, which will in turn override the veto and raise taxes and protect the fat behinds of the lazy overpaid underworked county employees.
Would be nice to fire them all and tell them to go get a real job (including the County Board) … but that’s wishful thinking.
Nice to see our next governor standing up for the taxpayers of Milwaukee County.
You can read Walker’s budget message here.
Neat blog especially given the local nature of it – would be great to see more of that around, would like a blog roll swap if you don’t mind.
I am at http://www.rightcondition.com – but I am mostly libertarian.