The Not-So-Daily Ramble

The past few weeks in Wisconsin have been, to say the least, interesting. The state's new governor, Scott Walker, is proposing a budget repair bill to patch a shortfall in the state's current budget. As proposed, it would require public employees to pay more for health care and benefit coverage. In addition, the unions representing these employees would not be able to engage in collective bargaining (save for police and firefighters).

At the State Capitol in Madison, there have been (at the time of this writing) two weeks of protests against the proposed agreement. In addition, 14 State Senate Democrats have literally left the state rather than vote on this bill. [20 Senators are required for a voting quorum on budget bills. Since there are only 19 Republicans in the majority, at least one Senate Democrat needs to be present for any vote on bills that contain a financial component.]  As of today, the Senators, including my State Senator, are reportedly in Illinois, doing heaven knows what, leaving one chamber of the Wisconsin Legislature virtually paralyzed.

The Democrats have said they will return when the Governor removes the collective bargaining aspect from the budget repair bill, claiming that union rights will be destroyed.  The Governor states that removing the collective bargaining will contain costs for the end of the 2009-2011 Wisconsin budget, which is facing a budgetary shortfall of over $100 million.*  In addition, Wisconsin is estimated to have a $3.6 billion budget deficit for the 2011-2013 budget period. Governor Walker has said tax hikes are out of the picture and so the budget will have to be balanced through spending cuts.

In the meantime, Facebook (or at least that part of it that I am exposed to) has gone insane. Along with the articles posted (pro and con on the Governor's proposal), people post their opinions, which have varied from the benign, to the "Ban Union Thugs" and "Governor Walker is a Douche" groups.

On my own Facebook account, I posted a number of articles (without editorial content) about what was happening in Madison. The comment wars were incredible and in once instance caused someone to have a complete meltdown and threaten another commenter.**  Apparently, I'm not the only one that has experienced this, as the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel's lead article today was on friendships taxed by the budget issues.

I just decided it wasn't worth it.

Although Facebook was great for keeping in touch with people, it became a bit much. So I'll stick with my smaller audience here.

-----
* - I have my opinions on how that budget shortfall occurred, but that is beyond the scope of this rant.

** - The second commenter was baiting the first, but still....