2009-10 Session Recap - Garthwaite on Schools

For years Assembly Democrats, especially rural Democrats like Rep. Garthwaite, have been promising to reform school funding in Wisconsin. They claimed that Wisconsin’s system of equalizing aid was broken and that they would fix it at the first opportunity.

Two years ago the Democrats were given that opportunity when the voters of Wisconsin granted them exclusive control over all three branches of Wisconsin’s government. Let’s see how Rep. Garthwaite and the Democrats did.

Class: School Funding Reform

Grade: F

Despite countless promises made in debates and on campaign literature, Rep. Garthwaite failed to pass meaningful school funding reform. One might assume that he and other Democrats tried to work on this vitally important issue but that they were block by Governor Doyle, outside special interests, or simply ran out of time. One would be wrong.

Rep. Garthwaite didn’t even introduce a bill to begin debate on this subject. He didn’t even try.

Class: Union Payback

Grade: A

After gaining complete control of state government, it’s no surprise that Rep. Garthwaite and the Democrats moved quickly to reward their greatest campaign supporter, the teachers’ union WEAC.

Rep. Garthwaite supported three major gifts for WEAC as part of the state budget.

1. Repeal of the Qualified Economic Offer – QEO

For years the union’s top priority has been to repeal the QEO. The QEO was a state law that guaranteed teachers a 3.8% compensation increase each year. If a local union got into a lengthy arbitration dispute with a school district, the district could invoke the QEO as a ceiling and resolve the dispute. This rarely happened and teachers usually received much, much higher total compensation. Thus Wisconsin remains ranked as the 4th highest taxing state when it comes to property taxes according to the non-partisan Tax Foundation.

Sit back for a moment and try to imagine a private sector worker in this economy complaining about a 3.8% minimum raise? Most people are losing hours, seeing their salaries cut, or losing their jobs altogether. Not only do WEAC members have 100% guaranteed job security but they also had guaranteed raises of 3.8%. That wasn’t enough for them so they had the law repealed.

In future years look for large property tax increases or the cutting of school programs as the increased costs of teachers’ salaries and benefit packages continue to outpace funding thanks to this repeal.

2. Find ways to increase property taxes to pad WEAC’s pockets

The best tool Wisconsin’s citizens have to keep property taxes down is called the revenue cap. The legislature put the revenue cap in place to keep local school districts from increasing property taxes by double digit percentages year after year.

The union’s second greatest priority has been to eliminate or weaken the revenue cap to feed its large appetite for higher property taxes.

In the 2009-10 state budget, Rep. Garthwaite voted to exempt several school expenses from the revenue cap. The affect will be visible in December when your property taxes go up by a bit more than they have in past years.

3. Give the union more power in arbitration

Unions exist to seek the best wages and benefits they can for their members by collectively bargaining (and to get Democrats elected to public office). This is all fine and dandy on an open and level playing field but that playing field no longer exists in Wisconsin thanks to sneaky changes that Rep. Garthwaite helped tuck into the state budget.

State law now prohibits an arbiter from considering local economic conditions first when negotiating contract disputes. School districts facing declining revenues due to high unemployment and declining property values (like most in Grant County) can’t go to the union and say, “Hey, we just can’t afford to give you a 6% raise and free Viagra this year because our community is hurting and they can’t afford it.”

This change will cause cuts to core educational services and property tax increases in the communities that can least afford them.

Rural School Funding

Grade: F

Rep. Garthwaite let the Milwaukee Democrats walk all over rural Wisconsin when it came to school funding.

He voted for a budget that cut state aid to many rural districts by as much as 15% but only hit Milwaukee with a 0.5% cut.

As a result, Southwest Wisconsin school districts are raising property taxes by record amounts:

Mineral Point – 24.4%
Lancaster – 8.3%
Schullsburg – 19.8%
Platteville – 7.4%
River Valley – 15.5%
Darlington – 22.4%

In contrast, what is Garthwaite’s school budget doing to the taxpayers in Democrat Milwaukee? Not much. They’re only seeing a 2.5% increase on their bills.