I've been having a rather lively discussion with one of my regular readers/commenters about the ongoing battle in Wisconsin between the governor, GOP legislators, a majority of voters, and the public sector unions. She seems to think it's just fine for the taxpayers to fund an unsustainable entitlement (she really likes the great pensions the state and local union employees will be collecting), while ignoring the facts of what she's supporting and what it really costs.
Robert Costrell gives us a breakdown of just one part of the public sector compensation in Wisconsin: teachers. (UPDATE: Link HTML was incorrect so it didn't display. Fixed now.)
As I mentioned to her in a comment to this post, quoting from Costrell's piece, Wisconsin teachers pay nothing towards their pensions. Not a penny. The taxpayers pay for it all. How is it they get away with this? I can explain it in two words: collective bargaining. Hold on to your hats (or should I say wallets) because there's more. Lets' take a look at health care benefits:
I could go on and on, but it might be better if you Read The Whole Thing yourself.
Robert Costrell gives us a breakdown of just one part of the public sector compensation in Wisconsin: teachers. (UPDATE: Link HTML was incorrect so it didn't display. Fixed now.)
The average Milwaukee public-school teacher salary is $56,500, but with benefits the total package is $100,005, according to the manager of financial planning for Milwaukee public schools. When I showed these figures to a friend, she asked me a simple question: "How can fringe benefits be nearly as much as salary?" The answers can be found by unpacking the numbers in the district's budget for this fiscal year.You never see that in the private sector. Why? Because businesses couldn't afford it and it would make them uncompetitive both in the domestic and world market, assuming they would even survive.
As I mentioned to her in a comment to this post, quoting from Costrell's piece, Wisconsin teachers pay nothing towards their pensions. Not a penny. The taxpayers pay for it all. How is it they get away with this? I can explain it in two words: collective bargaining. Hold on to your hats (or should I say wallets) because there's more. Lets' take a look at health care benefits:
Under the current collective-bargaining agreements, the school district pays the entire premium for medical and vision benefits, and over half the cost of dental coverage. These plans are extremely expensive.I wish my employer paid 100% of my health care benefits, but I know that won't happen because they can't afford it. They can't tap the taxpayers to pay for it all. And even if they could, the taxpayers couldn't afford it...hey, wait a minute! That sounds almost like...ObamaCare! And it won't work for the same reason.
This is partly because of Wisconsin's unique arrangement under which the teachers union is the sponsor of the group health-insurance plans. Not surprisingly, benefits are generous. The district's contributions for health insurance of active employees total 38.8% of wages. For private-sector workers nationwide, the average is 10.7%.
I could go on and on, but it might be better if you Read The Whole Thing yourself.
- I agree that throwing money at a problem is rarely the solution. We spend a lot on education yet education is frankly less than great in the states. I do not agree that tenure is the problem.
- I think you and I have talked a lot about Wall street before. The previous President and the last 2 Congresses are equally to blame for the bail out. Perhaps there was some good reason for it that I just don't see, but like I say, I don't see it...
- You are right, I had my facts wrong on the unions that supported Walker. It would appear that while the local police and firefighters unions did support him, the state unions did not. Politifact is my new best friend.
- I also agree that what Walker is doing is totally legit, I just don't like it and think it is the wrong thing to do. Still, as we often hear, elections have consequences. As far as I'm concerned, Wisconsin residents have no one but themselves to blame for electing Walker and this legislature in the first place. Now they can suffer the consequences. I don't think there is much excuse for 30% voter turn out and hissy fits. You and I do not agree on much, but I do hope that we agree that voting is one of the most important things we can do.
- Wisconsin is high on income taxes, sales taxes, but hardly on corporate and business taxes. I understand that they are trying to lure Illinois business into Wisconsin, but still...
They may have agreed to contribute more, but the collective bargaining for pensions and benefits means they can easily go right back where they are now, and that's not a good thing.
And while I agree there are far worse wastes of tax money than teachers, let's not fool ourselves to think that throwing even more money at them will help improve our schools one bit. One of the biggest travesties ever foisted upon parents and taxpayers is tenure, something that makes it impossible to get rid of incompetent or non-performing teachers.
And if your complaining about Wall Street, just remember who it is who made it possible for these guys to get away with it: the President and Congress.
In regards to the "unions that supported Walker being excluded", you've got your facts wrong. Of all the public employee unions in Wisconsin, only three out of the hundred-plus public employee union locals supported Walker, and as far as I have been able to ascertain, none of them have been excluded from his demands. At the moment the police and firefighters unions are not included in this call to remove collective bargaining from pension and benefits because they are public safety employees and not because they support Walker (they don't). Public safety employees tend to be separate from the rest of the municipal and state employees in most states, and Walker has said he will address them later.
And everything Walker is doing is legit. It is being done under the laws of Wisconsin and the US. He runs the state, not the unions. He has the power to hire and fire, not the unions. As long as he has legislative support and does not violate state or federal law or go outside the powers granted to him by the Wisconsin state constitution, he is doing as his job demands and the people who elected him have demanded: cut spending and bring the budget deficit under control. Raising taxes at this point won't raise revenue but instead will kill what little economic recovery there has been in heavily taxed Wisconsin. Giving in to the unions and letting them retain their unsustainable benefits and pension packages or the means to undo what must be done will lead Wisconsin going bankrupt. Wisconsin will end up looking like Detroit writ large: bankrupt, corrupt, and under control of people who haven't an effin' clue about economics and who it is who really pays the bills.
I probably said most of what I needed to say in the other post, but I would just like to reiterate that paying teachers a good salary and a good pension is not a problem, in my opinion. Aside from the fact that they have agreed to the increase in their contributions for both health insurance and pensions, I think there is no reason to get rid of collective bargaining. In fact, bargaining with the unions should be the very tool used to determine compensation and contributions. What is sad is that private workers do not get as good a pension plan as some public employees. That is the real shame.
As far as the plight of the tax payers, I can think of far worse wastes of tax payer money than to pay for teachers. The bank bail out comes to mind, which I was and still am completely against. There is no way that executives on wall street should have made as much money as they did off the tax payer dollars. That is the real outrage. As are the tax cuts for corporations that Walker passed for next year. And what is this that I hear about no bid contracts for power plants going to the Koch brothers? And why are unions that supported Walker excluded? You can't tell me that all of this is legit and that Walker is just trying to do what's best for his people. Nonsense.