Governor Walker Approves Bonuses and Pay Raises for State Workers

No I am not making this up. It is true that yesterday the media discovered that Governor Walker quietly reinstated the merit pay program for most state employees. It is the same program that Jim Doyle suspended in 2008 that allows state managers to offer employees bonuses or raises to keep them from leaving or to equalize their pay.

Since January 1st, approximately 218 state public workers across nine agencies received raises or bonuses adding up to $765,195 thanks to Governor Walker. Some of those receiving the money were already making well over $100,000 per year.

Bonuses and raises for hard work and excellence is great for those employers who can afford to offer such perks to deserving employees. But I for one am trying to understand how in the world reinstating this program fits with the relentless claims by Governor Walker that “we are broke,” and the claims that state workers are already way over paid or over compensated in comparison to private sector workers.

It simply does not make sense to be making deep cuts to state programs in need, and to be forcing state public workers to increase their financial contributions all in the name of the state being broke and the tax payers deserving a break, only to offer bonuses and raises at the same time? Think about that, the Department of Justice reduced funds to the “Sexual Assault Victim Services” program because their budget was short on money. Yet they somehow found money in that very same budget to give one of the Assistant Attorney Generals a $1,000 bonus and a $1.50-an-hour raise in March, which increased her annual salary to $104,730. Or how about the Deputy Attorney General who got a $2.51-an-hour raise bringing his pay to $134,307.

The list goes on and on, so I encourage you to read the link to the Journal Sentinel article from yesterday’s paper.

Again, I am not questioning the work performed by any of the 218 state workers who received the raises or bonuses. They may very well be deserving of such performance based recognition. But not when we are supposedly broke and we are cutting funds and services to victim assault programs. Besides, how can state agencies like DOJ really justify their claims that they had to offer the money in order to keep certain employees from leaving and going to the private sector. Is DOJ for real in saying that $5,000 was enough to retain someone who supposedly could double their already $129,000 income by leaving the state and going into the private sector?

This topic rubs me the wrong way because I will never forget being in Senator Fitzgerald’s office at the Capitol when he told me that public schools need to get their budgets under control by getting rid of the 30 plus year teachers and replace them with college graduates at half the base pay. I asked him about his concerns over the loss of institutional knowledge that such veteran educators bring to the classroom and the impact that they have on both educating the children add on mentoring younger teachers. He literally laughed at me and responded with incredible flippancy that I found to be caustically disrespectful to educators everywhere. He knew I felt that way about his remarks and he let me know that he really did not care.

You know that Governor Walker is going to tell us all about how he did not want the agencies to offer any merit pay bonuses or raises until after the fiscal year. But he created the legislation to include himself as the final approving authority for such requests by each agency. All 218 requests had to pass his desk for his signature. Now that makes it slightly difficult to push the blame onto someone else, doesn’t it? I cannot wait to see how he spins this one.

Not surprising, just since yesterday the blogs are already filling up with comments by Governor Walker supporters trying to justify the merit pay. But I would be willing to bet that many of those people are the same ones who were jumping on the band wagon with comments agreeing with Governor Walkers claims about the overpaid state workers. I call that hypocrisy in action and it is unacceptable to for the Governor to have it both ways. Are we tightening our belts and creating shared and proportionate sacrifice or all, or are we simply assuring future votes?

Governor Walker keeps telling us that he is looking out for the needs of the hard working tax payers who would love to have the benefits of a state employee and that his requests for increased contributions is a modest request at most. If he is serious about wanting to protect the tax payers, (which public workers are) then how can he justify this move, especially in an election year?

Does anyone else agree with me on any of this or are you content with letting Governor Walker’s actions. I would love to hear from you, especially if you are a conservative or a Republican.

Sincerely,

Gary

Walker reinstates bonuses despite budget shortfall

http://host.madison.com/wsj/news/local/govt-and-politics/walker-reinstates-bonuses-despite-budget-shortfall/article_3d9e5de4-8b0f-11e1-affa-001a4bcf887a.html

Lawmakers OK wage freeze, new overtime rules for state workers

http://www.jsonline.com/news/statepolitics/lawmakers-to-hear-testimony-on-compensation-plan-for-state-workers-u933il5-134049798.html