GOP lawmakers break ranks with Wis. governor on budget, suggesting he will have to compromise

[Pharaoh]

By SCOTT BAUER , Associated Press



MADISON, Wis. - Republicans broke from their party allegiance to Gov. Scott Walker in the first briefing on his budget plan Tuesday, joining Democrats in questioning the governor's decisions to cut money for recycling and reshape the University of Wisconsin System.

The meeting was a signal of how difficult it will be for Walker to get everything he wants in the two-year spending plan he delivered to the Legislature earlier this month. Consideration of his budget began in the Joint Finance Committee at the same time a court a couple blocks away considered a lawsuit challenging a polarizing collective bargaining law Walker pushed through the Legislature two weeks ago.

That law forces public workers to pay more for pension and health care costs and the same time nearly all of their collective bargaining rights are taken away. Walker said having workers pay more for their benefits will allow schools and local governments to manage the more than $1 billion in aid cuts he's proposing in his two-year budget, which also limits how much local property taxes can increase.

Passage of the collective bargaining law left residents and Legislature deeply divided, with Senate Democrats fleeing to Illinois for three weeks to block passage and protests in opposition attracting more than 85,000 at one point.



http://www.startribune.com/local/118844064.html

[msongs]

1. how it works - repubs push everything rightwards, dems compromise, then repubs push farther . nt

[Shiver]

3. Where did we compromise in Wisconsin?

[rpannier]

4. delete

[Citizen Worker]

5. It isn't just one or two compromises but rather the cumulative effect of compromise over more than

30 years and the lack of a bona fide Labor Party to counter the totally corporate owned duopoly.

[pacalo]

2. A gem of a quote at the end of the article...

"There are two words in Wisconsin that define the governor's behavior and his behavior in this budget," said Sen. Bob Jauch, D-Poplar. "They are con and sin."