Tag Archives: Mark Honadel

Update: Then there are these dire predictions from Supervisor Pat Jursik around transit cuts and other impacts of reduced state aid, cuts not necessarily lessened much by the budget repair bill.

Not surprisingly, the Assembly passed the collective bargaining bill on essentially partisan lines this afternoon, with South Milwaukee Rep. Mark Honadel voting in favor.

Now, what’s next for South Milwaukee?

In many ways, the answer to that question remains to be seen, and it won’t be known for some weeks and months.

Here is one thing I do know: Taking away collective bargaining rights from public employees will likely do little to lessen the immediate pain of the coming reduction in state shared revenue called for in Gov. Scott Walker’s proposed budget. Even the financial pieces of the bill — like increased benefits contributions for public employees — will not help too much too soon.

This is in part because South Milwaukee has a contract already in place with AFSCME into 2012, one where we already have asked our employees to pay more for their health insurance. The exemption of police and fire employees from the collective bargaining mandates further limits their local impact. (We have similar contracts in place with those employees anyway).

Additionally, other considerations in the proposed budget bill — such as property tax levy limits, the removal of state funding for local recycling programs and reductions in local road funding — also promise to make the “tools” meant to help local governments balance their budgets less effective in communities like South Milwaukee, at least in the short term.

For school districts, it is much the same. The South Milwaukee School District, faced with revenue caps and reductions in state aid of its own, must still come up with more than $1 million in potential cuts even after passage of the collective bargaining legislation.

Will there be long-term savings because of this legislation? Probably, especially as employee costs make up the bulk of our city budget.

But until then, and even after, this is going to be a tough road, no matter where you stand on the issue. I promise to keep you posted as the landscape becomes clearer and we begin this important, albeit difficult, debate at City Hall.

I respect South Milwaukee State Rep. Mark Honadel.

I just happen to disagree, strongly, with his position on Gov. Scott Walker’s union-busting plan.

Honadel was quoted in a story on WTMJ-TV a few days ago. From it:

Rep. Mark Honadel (R-South Milwaukee) could certainly hear the voices from his office, but they are unlikely to change his support for Walker’s budget plan. “They are going to pay a little more for their health care, but by golly, they’re still going to have a pension, unlike 80% of my friends in the private sector who lost their business or their company went belly up,” Honadel said.

Of course, a vote for Walker’s plan is more than just a vote for benefit givebacks (which I’d support). It’s also a vote to put an end to collective bargaining rights for public workers in communities across the state.

Walker told the Journal Sentinel in an interview on Friday that he is simply giving local governments “the tools to control their own budgets” and “flexibility” they need to deal with looming cuts in state aid.

He added: “I know as a local official, collective bargaining time and time again was the thing that stood in the way of local governments and school districts being able to manage their budgets.”

Really? We’ve managed our budget just fine while preserving collective bargaining rights. Now, it’s not been entirely pain free, but we’ve done it.

We did for the past two years with the help of our public safety unions, who, recognizing the financial situation of the city, agreed to no pay increases in 2010 and a 2 percent pay increase in 2011, as well as increased health insurance contributions.

And we’ll do it again in 2012 … hopefully with the partnership of our unions. Unions are not the problem. They can be part of the solution.