Wednesday, February 09, 2005

Doyle's Budget

First, did anyone see on the Urinal online they had a live web cast of
the governor's speech? It was pretty cool aside from the gigantic
picture of Doyle that accompanied the video screen. Personally I have
no idea how much it costs (Badger hockey has live web casts from time to
time) and would be very interested to know, since both Doyle and UW
obviously are spending our money for these things.

Secondly, the budget is almost not worth commenting on since it will be
revamped and rewritten and argued over in every corner of the state for
the next few months. The thing I am most concerned about is the
elimination of the QEO for public school teacher negotiations. Without
these caps I can only imagine what MPS teachers will be acting like in
the next contract negotiations. I envision illegal strikes and "sick
days" and more childish behavior from a union which will be granted far
too much power with out the much needed cap of the QEO. While Doyle
calls this a tax "freeze" it is anything but. Teacher salaries alone
would skyrocket in the coming years, because Doyle will have backed
local governments into a corner.