For most of my friends and family, any attempt to explain what's happening here in Wisconsin would amount to preaching to the choir, but I'd like to try to explain things to those friends out of state, those of different (though wrong) political leanings, and who may feel similar to a high school friend who posted this somewhat jumbled message on Facebook today:i dont think its unreasonable for "public"(state and local) employees to pay 5.8% towards there own retirement and the 12.6 % of health insurance. for many this is all free and others pay very little. its better than huge lay offs. and for the jag off teachers that didnt show up for your kids,YOU SHOWED THEM WHY YOU NEED A RAISE,IDIOTS!
It's about rights, stupid.
What you've been seeing, or reading about, or hearing about is a reaction by public employees (and their supporters) to a Budget Repair Bill introduced by our Republican Governor very late last week, with the intention that it would be swept through the Republican-controlled state senate and assembly without anything in the way of significant public debate. Among other things, the Governor asked public employees to pay 5.8% towards their pensions and roughly doubled the amount we currently pay for health insurance. Concurrently, Club For Growth-sponsored 527 ads began airing in the state suggesting that the populace call their legislators to demand that public "pay their fair share."
This is infuriating enough in its own right. Any public employee has made some sacrifice just by becoming a public employee. Because we are paid largely through funds collected from the people of Wisconsin (in the form of taxes, tuition, cost recovery, etc.), the state must feel some responsibility to pay us the absolute minimum it can get away with while demanding the most it possibly can from us as employees. This is only logical, and its why certain policies and protections need to be put in place -- more on this in a moment.
Given the above, we can concede that it is unlikely that anyone could ever grow rich in the service of the state (barring those who both control and are willing to abuse fiscal power). Salaries necessarily lag behind those of the private sector -- somewhere between 4.8% and 25%, depending on one's job/education level/theoretical economic approach. On top of this, any salary increase in the last six years in which I've been a public employee has lagged behind the increase of the cost of living. Increases have wavered between 0% and 2% throughout budgets between 2005 and 2009. Further still, public employees lost out on a previously promised 2% increase in 2009, and suffered what amounts to a 3% pay cut through mandatory unpaid furlough days in 2010 and 2011. So we came into this mess having sacrificed, almost entirely without fuss, roughly 5% of base pay.
The two new sacrifices requested of public employees (increased payments to our pensions and health care) essentially create a pay cut of about 13% off of what we should have been making in that alternate 2009 where Bush and unethical bankers and "Flip This House" didn't ruin everything forever and ever in perpetuity. Let me be somewhat gauche and put this in terms of real dollars and real people. Last year, according to taxes recently filed, the state paid me $40,600. If furloughs and rescinded raises weren't in place, that should have been $42,650 or so. Next year, with the Budget Repair Bill enacted (and the 2011-2013 biennial state budget yet to be set, but almost certainly set to include further cuts), I will make $37,082. This is a loss -- and my math was taught to me by a Wisconsin public high school teacher, so I'm pretty confident in it -- of 13% from what was, at one time, promised me. Lecturers in Math and English, custodians, and sign language interpreters already make pretty inexcusably low wages at the university where I work -- next year their salaries are due to shrink from about $24,000 to $22,800. And these are people who either have Master's degrees, clean public restrooms, or both.
Okay, you may be thinking, but what about the layoffs and unemployment in the private sector? Shouldn't we be framing these public cuts in what has happened to manufacturers and corporations all across these United States? Shouldn't the ill treatment of laborers justify the ill treatment of the middle-class, or vice versa?
Well, sort of, except for that last point. It's true that my particular position within the state comes with a great deal of job security. I don't need to worry about company profits (or didn't, until earlier this week), and I have enough protections to know that I will not be the first or second or third to go should layoffs happen. I also have a relatively low-stress job, working roughly 39 hours per week, year-round, with little take-home work or worries. Last year, I probably worked six Saturdays, and had more time off work due to me than I was able to take. (Some other time, I will explain how that vacation time does not really factor in salary, but it's a bit too complex and beside-the-point right now.) I also work for a university, which means its an atmosphere that (generally) values critical thinking, creativity, diversity, a quest for knowledge for the sake of knowledge, and the incubation and exploration of new ideas. This is no little thing, when it comes to morale and purpose, fit and lifestyle, and the balance of ones work with one's life. (We can also discuss -- maybe, some other time -- the false dichotomy of the university and the "real life" that many feel is outside of and/or opposite to the university.)
So, yeah, back to the pension and health care issues. It is very true that others pay more for such things, but the fact that public employees have recently paid less for them does not mean that sacrifices haven't been made in other ways. If nothing else, I'm sure it seems reasonable to you that someone who is forced to take a pay cut of between 8% and 13%, depending on how one counts, is allowed to grouse a little bit, and maybe hold up a sign and shout and take a sleeping bag into the capitol rotunda if the mood g*ddam strikes.
But you're falling prey to a very crafty bait-and-switch if you think that is really what all this Madison (and State-wide, let's emphasize) hubub is about.
Again, it's about rights, stupid.
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