Now that the “fillibuster” by the Democratic Senators bought us some time to carefully read the so-called budget repair bill, it is time highlight other egregious items with far reaching consequences beyond just the collective bargaining issue.
One is that all limited term employees (LTEs) will be PROHIBITED from being eligible for health insurance or participation in the Wisconsin Retirement System. That’s right: they are not simply being asked to contribute to their benefit plans; they will not be allowed to have any state benefit plan at all!
According to this article in the Capital Times, this affects about 1,500 folks.
It should also be pointed out that many of these LTE positions are actually funded by private and other non-state sources, NOT by the Wisconsin taxpayer. This is true for many other state employee positions as well, especially in the University and Hospital system.
In short, life-changing reductions in benefits would be imposed on workers whose pay and benefits have nothing to with the state budget.
-AC
Thanks for this. If you listen to the testimony on the bill, stuff like the LTE bennies issue got discussed, along with tons of other things. It looks like there are lots of these landmines but some of them are known, just not getting played up.
Maybe the point is simple The whole bill is insanely dangerous.