Although Democrats have control over the legislature for only one more month, they are taking advantage of the time they have left, making no motion to stop proceedings with labor contracts as incoming Republican leaders have requested.
Governor-elect Scott Walker initially asked Gov. Jim Doyle two weeks ago to halt dealings with labor unions, which he ignored. Walker wrote another letter to state lawmakers Monday requesting they not hold a lame-duck session to establish new contracts.
""If approved, the contracts will tie the hands of the Governor and the newly elected Legislature as they work to balance the state budget,"" Walker's spokesperson Cullen Werwie said in a statement.
However, state Rep. Sondy Pope-Roberts denied in a statement that these contracts would interfere with Walker's goals.
""What Governor-elect Walker decides to do in the next contract is his prerogative,"" Pope-Roberts said. ""He'll get the opportunity to oversee his own budget and contract negotiations soon enough after he is inaugurated.""
Incoming state Senate Majority Leader Sen. Scott Fitzgerald, R-Juneau, criticized, in a statement, the secretive nature of the bargaining procedures.
""The Democrats and the unions are holding all the cards at the moment, but the people of Wisconsin are still the ones paying the bill,"" Fitzgerald said. ""There's no reason to keep the details and the price tag a secret like this.""
—Ariel Shapiro
