Several complaints have been filed with the Dane County District Attorney and the State Attorney General regarding Wednesday's vote to strip rights from public workers. All of the complaints state that the Republicans violated the Open Meetings law and ask that all actions taken in the meeting be voided.
However, that's not the only issue with the bill stripping collective bargaining rights from public workers. According to the Daily Kos, there are two other rules that the Republicans violated, but most of all the bill itself may be unconstitutional. When the Republicans removed all of the fiscal provisions from the bill, they accidentally or intentionally left a few fiscal provisions. The first is the reductions in the benefits of public employees, and the second is a provision that allows the state to sell its power plants without asking for bids. I need to look, but does anyone else know if there a severability clause in the bill?
There's definitely more to come on this front, but no matter what, we have to keep voicing our thoughts, because the best we can get before a recall is a re-vote. So we'll want to make sure the next time around the Republicans know where the majority of Wisconsinites stand.
Update: (3/14/2011 10:10pm) The provision to sell state power plants was not left in the bill.
No comments:
Post a Comment