The Truth About WI Teacher's Pay

The data on how much is spent on teacher's pay isn't hard to find, but the truth may bother WI's Governor in his bid to blame unions and collective bargaining for his budget priorities:

The average teacher's salary across all Wisconsin districts is $48,267.  According to the Census Bureau’s Median Household Income by State – Single-Year Estimates the average household income in Wisconsin is $51,237 -- a difference of $2,970/year which would amount to a 6% raise if teachers were just brought up to the average.

Collective bargaining hasn't made Wisconsin teachers rich, it hasn't even brought them level with the rest of their state, but their new Governor wants to impose a new regulation restricting their rights.  If you ask me, that's new government regulations when the GOP has been telling us job creation is their priority.

Actions speak louder than words.

If you want to dig deeper, or verify the data on teacher pay, check the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction link: "Statistical Information Center - School Staff and Salary Data." It's all there: the low salary, high salary, average salary, average fringe, average local experience, average total experience for staff in each public school district, and more, in spreadsheets you can download.

If Governor Scott Walker hasn't blocked access, that is.

Political Correspondent Thomas Hayes is a former Congressional Campaign Manager; he's a journalist, photo/videographer, entrepreneur, and communications consultant who contributes regularly on topics ranging from economics and politics to culture and community, who incidentally stands in solidarity with the citizens and workers in Wisconsin refusing to let their Governor's self-created budget "crisis" and new spending priorities be re-cast as a reason to undermine contractual obligations and collective bargaining agreements.

You can follow Tom as @kabiu on twitter. Tweet

After earmarks?

GOP leaders, apparently taking cues from Senator Mitch McConnell (R-KY), and thrilled to be in a majority in the House of Representatives when the next Congress convenes in January, seem intent on banning legislative earmarks despite reforms initiated during the 110th Congress which brought much-needed transparency and accountability to this relatively small part of the allocation process. In fact, reforms have already reduced earmark spending by about $3 billion, to the point where the process now represents between 1% - 2% of federal spending.

But here's the million dollar question: By what new process will funding decisions be made if earmarks go away? If Congress doesn't specify allocation decisions, then it falls to the executive branch. Will spending choices made by agencies and their politically appointed heads be somehow superior to those made by our elected officials? It may sound like progress at first blush -- it's obviously got the elite GOP messaging teams excited, and right-leaning media commentators love it -- but GOP Senator Jim Inhofe (R-OK) doesn't think it's a good idea at all.

Inhofe, who says publicly he'll keep right on earmarking, knows the danger in moving away from the recent reforms to adopt a new process under control of political appointees.

Is that "executive branch control" over spending really what the people who assert the government has too much control and that earmarks are simply - and always - pork spending honestly think is the "best way to rein in big government," or is it more sound-bites setting up partisan bickering that will distract Congress from taking up more important challenges?

Look, when it's done away from the light, if the media and other watchdogs fail to follow the money, then earmarking is a system open to abuse and fraud. But are we going to ask Congress to invent a whole new process during a time when the GOP controls the House while Democrats retain the majority in the Senate and prominent GOP Senators are saying that gives too much spending control to the Obama administration?

Oh that should go really quickly.

Thomas Hayes is an entrepreneur, journalist, political strategist, and photographer who recently worked as the Campaign Manager on the Madore For Congress campaign in Minnesota's 2nd District. He contributes regularly to a host of other web sites on topics ranging from economics and politics to culture and community.

Some Democrats Among Stimulus Skeptics - Why?

More at washingtonpost.com: “President Obama, who promoted the $825 billion package at the Capitol yesterday, says the proposal serves two functions -- creating jobs and stimulating the economy in the short term, and laying the groundwork for overhauls in energy, health care and infrastructure that would be felt for decades. But some administration supporters say that while they appreciate Obama's intent, the two goals are competing with each other, and that the package could end up missing both targets.

In testimony before the House Budget Committee yesterday, Alice M. Rivlin, who was President Bill Clinton's budget director, suggested splitting the plan, implementing its immediate stimulus components now and taking more time to plan the longer-term transformative spending to make sure it is done right.”

-- What I don't get is why some Dems are waisting time in doing something to solve this problem. It's almost as if some officials are afraid to 1) take action because it 2) may work, making Obama 3) even more popular. I don't think it's just the GOP who has jealously regarding President Obama. Meanwhile the economy continues to tank.

GOV PROPOSES NEW BUDGET FOR NEW YORK - New York Post

GOV PROPOSES NEW BUDGET FOR NEW YORK - New York Post: “Gov. Paterson's proposed $121.1 billion budget includes wacky taxes on items ranging from luxury goods to downloaded music, movies and games from the Internet.

The plan also calls a massive 14 percent hike to public college tuition, slashing school aid by 3.3 percent, layoffs, higher fees for motor vehicles and fishing and allowing wine to be sold in grocery stores.”

-- NO! How is the Internet tax to be enforced? What if one blocks their IP address?