Friday March 18, 2011

This post is actually mostly new content, rather than re-posted!

11:42am Dane Cty judge issues temp restrain re: budget bill, for open meetings violat http://budget.wispolitics.com/2011/03/judge-blocks-publication-of-collective.html




News story at http://www.jsonline.mobi/news/statepolitics/118242814.html

Judge Sumi of Dane County issued a Temporary Restraining Order stating that Secretary of State Doug LaFollette can't yet publish the law. A hearing on a more permanent injunction will be held on March 29th.

This is seen as a major victory: there is a lot of pressure from the Republicans to publish the bill right away, and LaFollette (a Dem) has said he will wait the full 10 days permitted by law (as is his normal practice) particularly given the controversy around this particular bill.


2:16pm  can't remember if Fridays were this miserable before Walker ruined 2/11, or if this level of blah is new.

And ultimately, releasing the Budget Repair Bill on a Friday seems to have backfired. Instead of getting lost in the shuffle, with little time for state workers to brood, we ended up having the entire weekend to ORGANIZE.  And it paid off.


Friday March 18th also started out with some bad news regarding Scott Walker: Apparently, he's polling well. Just not in Wisconsin.


http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/03/18/us-usa-wisconsin-governor-idUSTRE72H0MR20110318


And polling well for a 2012 run. When he announced the Budget Repair Bill, my first thought was that he was trying to be the darling of the Republican party so that he can run in 2012. Then there was a brief bit of time, when some other Republican governors stepped back from collective bargaining, that I hoped he just seemed like a stubborn child who wouldn't give up even when it was clear he was losing. But since the bill has passed, he may indeed get to make that 2012 run...a run out of WI.  


The Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce launched their anti-boycott campaign: http://host.madison.com/wsj/news/local/article_dae2c8dc-514b-11e0-9a2f-001cc4c002e0.html.  As per conservative rhetoric, they want to free us from the intimidation of our union bosses. The problem is, many people don't want to support businesses who supported Walker, regardless of what the union says. And, one of their main arguments is about the need to support Wisconsin business. I agree completely. Luckily, there are many fine businesses in Wisconsin, and hopefully we can all remember to spend our money as locally as possible...and to businesses that support us the way we support them.  These cuts will hurt everyone, not just state workers, and business owners, especially small business owners, will be hard hit.  


The Department of Health Services has announced that it is freezing enrollment for Badger Care Basic, a self-funded plan for childless adults, which was created after BadgerCare Plus's childless adult spots were filled incredibly quickly with a long waiting list.  http://www.thewheelerreport.com/releases/March11/0318/0318dhsbasic.pdf. Unfortunately, in addition to the items that require legislative approval, there are other items, like this, which do not. And these types of freezes will continue to happen when possible, I believe.  


And so Friday came to an end...