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GOP legislative leaders are content to allow the appeals process to play out on the Governor’s collective bargaining changes.
By John Forester(Don't Use) | March 22, 2011
From WisPolitics.com ..
— GOP legislative leaders are content to allow the appeals process to play out on the guv’s collective bargaining changes. Still, a spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald said they may need to prepare other cost savings measures if the legal fight drags on.
Spokesmen for both Scott Fitzgerald and Assembly Speaker Jeff Fitzgerald said there are no plans to pass the bill again to negate issues raised in the court case over how the joint conference committee handled the bill.
“We did it once. We did it right. We’ll wait for the court to make that decision,” said John Jagler, a spokesman for Jeff Fitzgerald.
But Dane County Judge Maryann Sumi’s temporary restraining order on Friday put on hold Gov. Scott Walker’s austerity measures, which were scheduled to kick in April 1 for state employees and save the state $30 million through the end of the fiscal year.
The Department of Justice today filed an appeal with the 4th District Court of Appeals seeking to lift the temporary restraining order.
Sumi is on vacation this week and has scheduled court hearings for next week to resume arguments in the case. But it would be unlikely anything would change in that case that would allow the state to begin requiring the higher payments April 1 as previously scheduled.
“At some point, we’re going to have to figure out if additional budgetary measures are necessary for the current year,” said Scott Fitzgerald spokesman Andrew Welhouse.
Walker had previously warned the state would have to lay off workers if those austerity measures didn’t take effect as scheduled. His administration sent layoff notices to public employee unions and then rescinded them after the bill was passed. Asked if the administration was preparing any other cost saving measures with the higher employee contributions on hold, a Walker spokesman demurred.
“We are confident that the budget repair bill will become law in the very near future,” Cullen Werwie wrote in an e-mail.
— DOJ argues in its appeal that the court does not need to determine if the open meetings law was violated.
Rather, the agency argues the appeals court only has to determine if Sumi had the power to issue the injunction in the first place.
Dane County DA Ismael Ozanne did not immediately return a call seeking comment.
*Read the DOJ release:
http://www.wispolitics.com/index.iml?Article=230738
*Read the filing:
http://www.wispolitics.com/1006/110321_DOJ_petition.pdf
*Read the state statute that guides the appeal process:
http://legis.wisconsin.gov/statutes/Stat0809.pdf
— The state is also approaching the new deadline DOA established for refinancing state debt to save $165 million in the current fiscal year.
After missing the first two deadlines the administration set, DOA said it had found a new avenue to finish the refinance by the first week of April and still realize the savings.
Werwie said the state is still working on its options.
“Governor Walker is working with DOA Secretary Huebsch to look at options available in the future to refinance a portion of Wisconsin’s debt,” he said.
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