| Retired Professional Fire Fighters of Wisconsin |
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Legislative Report October 2011 The Wisconsin Legislature returned for its Fall Session on September 13th. Legislators quickly swore in 3 new members. One was expected with Chris Taylor of Madison filling the vacant seat of former Rep. Joe Parisi (D) who was elected Dane County Executive in April. The most newsworthy new members were the two new Senate Democrats that won recall races against GOP Senators Randy Hooper of Fond du Lac and Dan Kapanke of La Crosse. The new senators are former State Rep Jennifer Shilling (La Crosse) and Jessica King (Oshkosh). The 2011 elections are not yet over. In La Crosse there is another Special Election to fill the seat of Jennifer Shilling. The primary election in the heavily Democratic district is October 11th. There is talk that the Legislature's Fall Session will be less partisan. The Governor has said he has extended his hand to Democrats to work in a more bipartisan fashion. There are skeptics on both sides as to the seriousness of the offer. Obviously with the Senate now having only a one vote margin for the Republican majority there might be need for compromise. Governor Walker has called another Special Session on Job Creation. There are at least 26 separate bills. Some of the bill had already been introduced. Some of those have Democratic authors. The bills range in topics from tax relief, access to capital, and job training. Those issues will no doubt garner bipartisan support. However other bills are likely to be controversial and cause considerable debate. These range from increasing the weight for trucks, less environmental regulation and making it more difficult for injured citizens to sue for recovery of their damages. Few issues in the Fall Session are related to public employees nor pensions. It seems the Governor and legislators are willing to see what happens with all the changes that have already been made in the Budget Repair Bill and the Biannual Budget Bill. One bill that has gotten some attention is AB-219. Under this bill a local unit of government could not provide post-retirement health insurance benefits unless the cost of the benefit was fully funded on an actuarial basis. It would only apply to new hires. This bill could be taken up in the current session. Other issues raised by the earlier budget legislation are going to be fought out in the courts. The issue of "design of health care benefits" is already in court. When the Governor and Legislature said that fire fighter and law enforcement unions can no longer bargain over the design of benefits, they failed to explain what was meant by design. Does it mean what benefits will be offered or does it mean who pays for what part of the benefits (co-pays, deductibles) or are both covered? Depending on the answer there could be in impact on health care benefits that some retired fire fighters currently receive. We will have to see what the courts say. The Fall Session is expected to last to November 3rd with a 3 week break midway for committees to work on pending legislation. |
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