Governor Walker’s Statement Creates Wiggle Room To Harm Wisconsin Pension System
I was amused at the headline in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel regarding the just released report on Wisconsin’s pension system. As everyone knows our pension system is the envy of the nation. The report was put together by Walker’s Department of Administration, his Office of State Employment Relations and the independent Department of Employee Trust Funds.
The report concluded that no changes are warranted. The MJS headline for this online news coverage even read Walker plans no changes to state retirement system.
While Scott Walker is mindful that he needs to curtail the flow of bad public relations from his administration during the election cycle by sending calming words to an angry electorate, there was still a caveat in his statement for those who are really listening.
“I want to be very clear: I am currently not planning to make any substantial changes to the WRS. However, I will continue to work to ensure that the WRS is fiscally sustainable for both taxpayers and retirees.”
That statement is akin to me saying as I sit here typing this post I am not currently eating lunch, but I want to ensure those who are interested that at some point I will consume food.
No one trusts Walker not to place his hands and harmful policy options all over the pension system in this state. There is nothing to suggest that his zeal at challenging state workers and public employees in every way possible has in any way abated. The fact his attacking state workers was sustained by the majority of voters in the recall gives Walker license to charge forward with other policies that will prove equally harmful.
To think that Walker will not tamper with the pension system that every other state wishes it had, is to be willfully ignorant.
Wanker did the same thing last year through his wack/hack job Deputy Sec. of Admin. who sent out several memos saying that the accused woman-harassing/convicted-drunk-driving Director of OSER had the final arbitrary say on the compensation plan (since there were no collective bargaining agreements anymore, Thanks Russ Decker and Jeff Plale!), and there were “no present plans” to make any changes. So, the question for thousands of employes was, do you want to go into work every Monday morning and see a new email from Cindy Archer that said, “well you know those benefits you used to have………” They lost thousands of good employes with hundreds of thousands of years of experience that walked out the door because they couldn’t risk betting on Wanker’s “integrity” or lack thereof.
lets hope they arrest his as# sooner then later.