Gov. Scott Walker's administration has suspended merit raises and retention pay increases to help deal with a budget gap that must be plugged by the end of June.Well, that seems to be a little different than what this pile of GOP-aganda from the MacIver Institute claims, which is that Act 10 leads to worker pay increases resulting from the savings generated by cutting workers' take-home pay. The argument is that by reducing automatic pay increases for all workers, it'll allow "flexibility" to pay truly outstanding employees.
Walker sent a memo to state agency human resources directors on Feb. 5 announcing the freeze, the Wisconsin State Journal reported Friday.
It's unclear how many employees will be affected. University of Wisconsin faculty, academic staff and appointees will not be affected, but UW System spokesman Alex Hummel said the freeze will apply to classified employees, including custodians, administrative assistants, information technology workers, accountants and food service workers.
But the numbers that we do know from the state's 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2015 Annual Fiscal Reports (which you can search from this page), shows that MacIver (as usual) is not telling the truth. The post-Act 10 years of 2012 and 2013 gave few increases, and while there was a nominal increase in 2013-14, with a 1% salary increase for many public employees (woo-woo!), even those will be limited for this year, in a desperate attempt to balance Walker's deficit-ridden budget.
Compensation Reserves paid out, 2011-2015
2011-12 $19.7 million
2012-13 $19.0 million
2013-14 $57.9 million
2014-15 (projected) $35.0 million
Even in the highest comp reserves year of 2013-14, that increase is less than 0.4% of the total appropriations of that year's budget. But the Walker Administration is still trotting out the claim that "raises will be coming", with the immunity-receiving Cullen Werwie quoted as saying the merit raises and retention pay items are supposed to resume in the following budget. Really? Because one look at the salary and compensation changes that are in the state budget show that any type of raise for most employees is highly unlikely. The amount set aside for increases in salaries and fringe benefits are set aside in a category known as "Compensation Reserves," and page 33 of the Budget in Brief includes the table of the budget figures, which includes those Comp Reserves.
Compensation Reserves, 2015-17 budget
2015-16 $10.7 million
2016-17 $18.5 million
That's it, less than 0.1% of a budget that exceeds $32.8 billion in appropriations over those two years. That's not including the effects of inflation or increases in fringe benefit costs. Unless you believe that there will be no inflation in the next 28 months (riiight), then this will inevitably mean pay and staffing cuts.
A similar trend has happened at the local level, where Act 10 "tools" have not made up for the cuts in state aids to schools and other local governments in the Age of Fitzwalkerstan. Given that the 2015-17 budget offers no increases to these communities, and is slated to cut $150 a pupil to public schools, the downward cycle of lower pay for public employees is likely continue.
But you know who did do better in the aftermath of Act 10? Rich people and corporations, who have received billions in tax breaks during the last 4 years in Wisconsin, with little job or wage growth to show for it. You know who else got a whole lot of extra money the last four years? Scott Walker, who received more 3 times as many campaign contributions for his 2014 campaign than he did in 2010, from $11.1 million in 2010 to $34.7 million in 2014, according to the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign.
The connection is obvious- Act 10 and related moves to cut public employee pay may have reduced the amount of money that went to those people, and instead was combined with lower funding to schools and other local governments to allow for tax cuts to the rich and corporate. That money went back to Scott Walker and the Wisconsin GOP in the form of campaign contributions, those guys get re-elected, and the cycle begins all over again, this time with another group of workers to screw over by cutting wages, which allows for more money to be diverted to corporations and the rich.
Nice bit of theft, isn't it? It only sucks for the 98% of us that aren't in on it.
Yes, it sucks. I am a long time state employee and, thanks to the furloughs in the last 2 years of Doyle and then Act 10, my earnings declined for 5 years in a row from 2008 until 2013. Thanks to a merit award, I was able to recoup some of it. But, I'm in IT and I could be making roughly 30% more if I went to work for the private sector. I love my work, but I'm seriously thinking about it, since it's very difficult to work for the State when you know that the governor who is your boss basically hates public employees. It doesn't look like things are going to get better any time soon.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing. I understand the sentiment
DeleteJake,
ReplyDeleteThe situation is so bad at Revenue that Scott Walker, hisself, (honest) asked for over 100 new revenue auditors at a cost of $12.7-million in his new budget.
First after grappling with the inconceivable notion that a republican would advocate expanding the DoR staff, you have to ask yourself, how badly off is that agency that someone like Walker will defend it?
Some writers have pointed to Walker's proposal to permit businesses to avoid tax liability on mistakes and underpayments if they have "communicated" that knowledge to the DoR as something of an outrageous loophole (and pause to consider how that would play out in court--"your honor, the defendant clearly pointed out on a footnote on page 55 of his 120-page addendum to his tax return, the alleged underpayment. And furthermore his text message, "look hard in my return" put the department on notice of a potential problem.") But in actual practice, if you are attaching a federal Schedule C to your return, there is no one at the Wis. DoR who is going to question anything on your listing of expenses--it really is that bad.
Dr. Morbius
Wow, those last two sentences are really telling. Thanks for sharing as well.
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