Listen to these remarks from leaders of the new Republican majority in Wisconsin...
Senate Majority Leader-elect Scott Fitzgerald (left) said lawmakers are actively discussing making Wisconsin a
right-to-work state, the latest escalation in the looming battle between Republicans and unions in the next session.
Appearing at a WisPolitics luncheon on Wednesday, Fitzgerald said he attended the American Legislative Exchange Council meeting and was "surprised how much momentum there was in an around that discussion. Nothing like I've ever seen before." Fitzgerald said he's had discussions with Sen.-elect Frank Lasee about "some of the major changes that need to happen in and around labor. And certainly right-to-work is one of those topics that's always right there."
Fitzgerald said this is the environment, with a new GOP guv and legislative majorities, in which those changes could happen. "We have new majorities. We've talked to new members of the House of Representatives and the way they view the world right now is the more feathers you ruffle right now, the stronger you're going to be politically. I don't ever remember an environment where that existed before," he said. "I think it gives us a lot of leeway ... to make some significant changes."
Fitzgerald also said Gov.-elect Scott Walker's comments about
decertifying state unions reflect discussions among GOP guvs across the nation.
"When you've got governors like Chris Christie (in New Jersey) and Mitch Daniels (in Indiana) and Bobby Jindal (in Louisiana) and some of these Republican governors who are saying 'Listen we have to make some serious changes to get our state back on track,' I think most of the statements I've heard from Scott Walker fit in that category," Fitzgerald, R-Juneau, said during the luncheon at the Madison Club.
"I don't think anything's off the table right now, and I think that's appropriate with where we're at and what the state's financial condition is."
Assembly Speaker-elect Jeff Fitzgerald, Scott's brother, said with the state's dire fiscal condition "everybody's going to have to pitch in this go-round." The Horicon Republican said there is a concern among business people around the state of the income and benefits gap between private and public employees.
"Quite frankly, the political climate that's out there right now you won't see us raising taxes to solve the state budget," Jeff Fitzgerald said. "So there's going to have to be a cut to spending. ... That's what people are looking for, they're looking to rein in government, rein in spending."
In a meeting with reporters Wednesday morning, new Assembly Dem leader Peter Barca called Walker's comments on state employee unions a "bombshell," particularly since they didn't come up during the lengthy campaign for governor. "Is this part of a general theme to go against the long tradition we've had in Wisconsin of respecting workers and the right of workers to organize?" Barca asked, adding that he hopes Walker doesn't follow Mississippi Gov. Hayley Barbour in pursuing a "right to work" state.
"I had just been very hopeful we could start this session with a real spirit of bipartisanship in accomplishing what I thought was his primary goal, which is to add 250,000 jobs in the state," the Kenosha Dem said. "That should clearly be everybody's No. 1 priority."
http://www.wispolitics.com/index.iml?Article=220213They didn't let their open hostility toward unions and working people show during the campaign but now that its over they have it out in the open.
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