Uppity Wisconsin

Public employees are taking a beating in the current political climate.

Scott Walker, who has made a pretty cushy career for himself as Milwaukee County executive by beating up on public workers at every opportunity, has no other ideas about how to handle a looming $2,5-billion state budget deficit except to take it out of the hides of workers.

Make them contribute more for their own pensions.  Get rid of thousands of them.  Put the ones who don't get fired on furlough.  And on and on.

Public workers -- we used to call them public servants, back when they were popular -- have become such an easy target in the current angry, hateful state of the country that even Journal Sentinel columnist Mike Nichols decided to pile on.  (He's not an editorial writer, but the old description of an editorial writer as someone who comes in after the battle to shoot the wounded applies in this case anyway.) Says Nichols:

Dear graduates of the class of 2010. If you do nothing else in life, work for the government.

Government workers, in Nichols's world, have it made. Guaranteed cushy jobs with big fat pensions at an early age.

Nichols, it should be noted, is a former newspaper reporter whose future retirement plans went awry when the newspaper business went to hell, his stock options took a nosedive, and he took a buyout but still gets paid on a contract basis to write columns bashing people who work for a living.

His regular "job" now is to "work" as a senior fellow at the right-wing Wisconsin Policy Research Institute, sharing his views with the masses from the ivory tower. Thank God he's able to moonlight as a columnist, or Patrick McIlheran would be out there all by hisself to shill for WPRI, the Bradley Foundation and other Republican front groups. (Nichols's column actually echoes a pension report from the people he works for at WPRI. No conflict there, right?)

Finally, some people in the public sector are beginning to push back.

Mark Klipstein, resident of the State Engineering Assn. (one of those dreaded unions) in an op ed, does some truth-telling:

Moreover, in collective bargaining, state employees accepted lower pay in exchange for the state's pledge to pick up their pension costs. That deal in fact saves tax dollars. The state otherwise would be paying higher Social Security and Medicare taxes for its workers. The current pension funding method is thus a win/win/win for the state, public employees and taxpayers. Anti-government rhetoric and WRS' relatively stable performance may have some taxpayers convinced that retired state employees have been immune from losses caused by the national financial meltdown. Actually, state pension payments to most retirees have been trimmed for two straight years. As WRS moves to protect assets, many retirees can expect another three years of cuts.

And that's on top of other pain. If you work for a business that has cut compensation, trimmed staff, pushed remaining employees to boost productivity and outsourced work, then you are now experiencing what state employees have experienced for over a decade. State workers just suffered two-year, 3% to 3.4% wage cuts through furloughs and layoffs.

Also, the Doyle era will leave state government with far fewer employees. Wisconsin now has fewer state workers per capita than neighboring states and significantly fewer per capita than the national average.

Some letter writers to the Journal Sentinel also have weighed in:

I'm sure Nichols, like many conservatives, believes the "small people" should just suck it up and work until they are dead. So when you hear about that 90-year-old cop losing control of his car in a high-speed chase, or that 80-year-old granny in the early stages of Alzheimer's losing control of her classroom, think about all the taxes that have been saved by not dishing out pensions.

Another says public employees should be proud of their service:

Remember the fire you prevent from destroying more lives, the child you educated, the sick or infirmed you cared for, the laws you enforce, the clean drinking water you provide, the clearing of snow or the myriad other jobs that public employees do will not get you rich, and what you have been given charge of - the schools, the water, the roads, the libraries, the museums, the parks, the hospitals - is your community.

Finally, my two cents worth: As a recovered journalist who has also worked for government on a few brief occasions, I can testify that newpaper work, while stressful at times, is not exactly breaking rocks. At the risk of alienating my friends in the profession, I'd have to say that journalism is a lot cushier than most government jobs -- and a lot more fun.

I've never been a senior fellow at a think tank, but I'd be surprised if any of them work up a sweat.

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