Today's Blog: Time for the Guv to morph into Chris Christie My husband and I and a couple hundred friends watched in Green Bay as ...(more) Search Archives

Blogs

Time for the Guv to morph into Chris Christie (6/28/2011)

Time for Gov. Walker to talk more about the cake (3/4/2011)

Today, reality hits home (3/1/2011)

FoxPolitics News going on hiatus (1/28/2011)

Brown County Executive candidate forum Feb. 8 (1/28/2011)

Education done right (1/27/2011)

To Obama, the ‘We’ is Government (1/27/2011)

(more)

(May 20) As the economy declines State tax revenues decrease. As State revenues decline the money it shares with local government shrinks. Local property taxpayers find it harder to bear the tax burden. Deep cuts are inevitable. Many have already been proposed. More are coming.

….We are all in this together. We honor our contracts. This happens only if we all agree to do it!

• Cut the general level of wages by 5% at mid year, effective June 28, 2009
• Freeze the general level of wages through December 31, 2010
• Cap employer contribution to health insurance at the 2009 level through December 31, 2010
• Avoid layoffs to the greatest possible extent, by acting now

(May 21) [Ziegelbauer] said he expects that the proposed changes to personnel expenses would be enough to get the county through this slump without slashing jobs. "My goal is to save jobs," Ziegelbauer said. "I don't want to be laying people off — to be sending people home. I think we can be successful in doing that."

…. Though a 5 percent overall cut may be hard to swallow, Ziegelbauer reminded the group of the advantages they've had as county employees over the past several years. He said workers have continuously received wage increases that accumulated higher than the rate of inflation, and individuals and families got a break worth hundreds, if not thousands of dollars in 2007 when the county changed its health insurance plan.

(June 22) After meeting with members of the AFSCME union last week, County Executive Bob Ziegelbauer said little progress has been made to convince the union that pay cuts and benefit concessions are necessary to prevent layoffs.

….Ziegelbauer has said it will be an all-or-nothing deal for county employees, meaning if they don’t agree to the proposed cuts, layoffs could be on the horizon. Ziegelbauer has said he is hopeful that pay and benefit cuts could prevent layoffs…. Ziegelbauer’s proposal of cutting pay and benefits has not been received well by most county workers. The Sheriffs Department also unanimously rejected Ziegelbauer’s proposal earlier this month.

(July 16) "I wanted to let people know now so they would have time to react and time to make alternative plans," Ziegelbauer said. "I didn't want this to be a surprise to anyone a month from now."

…. "I think the union people were surprised," Kennedy said. "In the defense of the union they don't have access to the books the way the managers here do, but something had to happen. We have had to completely change the way we do business."

(August 12) "I'm disappointed, like everybody else," said [highway worker] Miller, who was among many union members attending the meeting in the highway department's conference room.

He said they sought an opportunity last week to discuss possible cost-cutting measures with Ziegelbauer and Gary Kennedy, county highway commissioner, "but they weren't interested" at that point. Kennedy said after the meeting he wishes members of the county's six unions would have accepted a package of wage and benefit cuts and freezes Ziegelbauer proposed in May.

(August 13) Kevin Johnson, an asphalt crew roller operator, said Ziegelbauer's decision to lay off 70 percent of highway department union personnel "could end up costing county citizens much more than it saves."

Post a Reply

Print this Article

Email Article to a Friend