Boots & Sabers

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Tag: Act 10

Judge Dismisses Lawsuit Stemming from Act 10

by | 2006, 31 Aug 1515 | | 1 Comment

It is good to some common sense in the courts. Employers, including school districts after Act 10, are entitled to modify benefits. The notion that once a benefit is given that it must be maintained for all eternity is the kind of delusional thinking that only seems to make sense in a union hall.

NEENAH — Six Neenah teachers will appeal after a Winnebago County Judge dismissed their case against the Neenah Joint School District last week.

[…]

The school district changed its retirement benefits after Act 10 to avoid more than $100 million in costs over the next 22 years. The decision reduced annual employee stipends and health insurance coverage from a possible $300,000 per employee to $99,000 or less per person.

The school board is pleased with Key’s decision, board president Scott Thompson said in a statement.

“Tough choices don’t make everyone happy, but it would be impossible to operate the district if we got sued every time someone disagreed with our decisions,” he said. “We modified the retirement plan to allow the district to continue a healthy financial state while maintaining an early retirement plan — in addition to the state mandated retirement benefits — for our teachers.”

Also, notice the numbers in the health insurance coverage. Here’s a better explanation about what they changed:

The district has long offered an early retirement plan, separate from the state’s pension fund. Benefits could total $300,000 or more for each employee.

According to the district, the plan cost taxpayers almost $5 million annually. It also meant the district had a more than $184 million unfunded liability.

Back in October, the school board changed the lucrative plan for qualified employees. The new plan got rid of yearly stipends and health insurance.

Instead, teachers were offered payments of $99,000 or less. That decreased the district’s liability to just more than $100 million.

What the teachers are suing over is a change in their lavish secondary retirement plan on top of their already generous state pension plan.

Whenever I look at the details of how out of control some of these local units of government were (and still are), I am filled with another wave of gratitude for Act 10.

Dane County’s Gift to Union

by | 1527, 7 Dec 1414 | | 0 Comments

Idiots. The Dane County supervisors have intentionally tied their own hands and limited their ability to manage the county.

As their years-long holdout against Wisconsin’s 2011 collective bargaining law ends this month, thousands of public-sector workers in Dane County will lose union protections. But some significant and unusual non-union rights will replace them.

In consultation with employee union members, the county board has adopted rules that greatly limit the authority it could have claimed in deciding disciplinary matters and employee disputes over pay, benefits and working conditions.

Instead of being able to decide those things unilaterally as Act 10 allows, the county passed an ordinance and employee handbook that allows employees to bring in impartial arbitrators whose awards can be rejected by the county board only in limited circumstances.

County and union officials say the rules are meant to re-create, to the extent legally possible, the union rights taken away by the controversial state law that banned collective bargaining and payroll dues collections for most public employees.

Neenah Cuts Pay for Underperforming Teachers

by | 0211, 20 Nov 1414 | , | 0 Comments

The fact that it is news that three – THREE – teachers in the entire state are only now seeing a reduction in compensation due to poor performance is an indication of just how cushy their compensation plans were. This is something that happens on a regular basis in other parts of the economy.

NEENAH – Three teachers in the Neenah Joint School District received pay cuts this year, a first in the post-Act 10 era for educators who formerly had one of the most lucrative salary-and-benefits packages in the state.

The educators had less-than-satisfactory job performances during the 2013-14 school year, said Jim Strick, the school district’s communications manager. They are now on an improvement plan, but Strick said he cannot comment on what could happen if the teachers don’t make progress.

Madison School District Sued for Illegal Contracts

by | 1825, 11 Sep 1414 | , | 0 Comments

This lawsuit appears to be more about making a point than anything else, but it is a point worth making.

A conservative legal group sued Madison’s school district, school board and teachers union Wednesday over what it calls illegal labor contracts the district continues to honor.

The lawsuit was filed by the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty on behalf of David Blaska, a well-known conservative blogger living in Madison, according to Dane County Circuit Court records.

The suit alleges the district’s contracts with Madison Teachers Inc. for the 2014-15 and 2015-16 school years violate Act 10, Gov. Scott Walker’s signature 2011 legislation that all but eliminated collective bargaining rights for most public employees. Blaska requests a declaration that the contracts are illegal and void, and an injunction to prohibit the contracts from being enforced, according to a copy of the lawsuit provided by WILL.

Act 10 Created Teacher Marketplace

by | 1428, 7 Sep 1414 | | 0 Comments

Heh.

“The great irony is that Act 10 has created a marketplace for good teachers,” said Dean Bowles, a Monona Grove School Board member.

Fellow board member Peter Sobol said though the law was billed as providing budget relief for school districts and local government, it could end up being harder on budgets as districts develop compensation models that combine their desire to reward good teachers and the need to keep them.

No, it’s not ironic at all. It is what naturally happens when a market is liberated from the shackles on union bondage. Good and great teachers will thrive under Act 10 while crummy ones will find new careers. It is great for the students.

As for it being more difficult for district managers to adapt to a competitive labor market… good. As with teachers, good administrators with thrive in such an environment. Bad ones with move on. Anyone who has worked in a competitive industry knows how this works.

All Act 10 did was introduce a smidgen of the free market to public schools and it is doing wonders to improve education.

Municipal Spending Down

by | 1949, 6 Sep 1414 | | 1 Comment

Good.

The Wisconsin Taxpayers Alliance issued two reports this week, one showing municipal spending per capita declined 3 percent as Walker’s public union reforms and first state budget took effect, and the other measuring the state’s business climate.

According to the group’s annual MunicipalFacts report, cities and villages with at least 2,000 residents spent on average $823 per capita in 2012, down from $848 the year before. Per capita spending grew 2.2 percent on average in the previous six years. Spending dipped 1 percent in 2009, which was the first decline in more than a decade.

Curt Witynski, assistant director of the League of Wisconsin Municipalities, chalked up the reduction to a combination of factors, including “good management of public dollars by municipal elected officials, Act 10, strict levy limits and several other changes included in Gov. Walker’s first budget, such as the repeal of language requiring municipalities to maintain certain minimum spending thresholds on libraries, police and fire protection” and “the reduction in shared revenue and other intergovernmental programs like transportation aids.”

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