MADISON – Wisconsin Education Association Council President Mary Bell is a liar.

That’s according to a recent blog on BigGovernment.com by Collin Roth of Media Trackers.

Roth looked into recent media reports that WEAC officials asked prospective gubernatorial candidates to promise to veto any budget that doesn’t restore collective bargaining privileges for public sector unions.

He was inspired by Bell’s comments to the LaCrosse Tribune in which she insisted the union never asked for a veto pledge.

“Absolutely not,” Bell told the newspaper. “It’s not the approach that any of us would take.”

James Palmer, executive director of the Wisconsin Professional Police Association, helped expose WEAC’s request for a veto pledge for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. He told Roth he’s sticking to his statement, that WEAC and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees union “demanded a hard commitment” on the veto pledge in exchange for their endorsement.

Bell is lying when she says otherwise, Palmer told Roth.

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The Big-Labor backed Walker Recall coalition says they’ve turned in a million signatures today, well in excess of the 540,000 necessary to trigger a recall later this year. Our report:

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In Wisconsin, where Big Labor is circulating petitions to trigger the recall of Republican Governor Scott Walker, the state agency that monitors and administers elections is known as the G.A.B.

The ‘A’ is supposed to stand for accountability. But, in reality, not so much.

Yesterday we reported that the GAB would not comb through the petitions to disqualify duplicate signatures.

Today, we find out it is much worse than that.

[Madison, Wisc…] Duplicate signatures are not the only point of contention in the ongoing recall drives in Wisconsin. The board that oversees the state’s elections admits they will not check the validity of any of the signatures or addresses contained on the recall petitions expected to be submitted in January.

For $625,699 the Wisconsin Government Accountability Board will make sure all the blanks are properly filled out on petitions to recall Governor Scott Walker, but that’s all.

Meanwhile, news reports around the state have raised the questions about ineligible individuals signing the forms. At least one liberal group is encouraging voters to sign multiple times.

The GAB will not be checking for fraud, but will rule on challenges brought forth by the subjects of the recalls, should they find evidence of fraud.

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Welcome to Wisconsin. Home of recallmania.

As the unions strike back against the governor who forced them to ask permission to collect dues from public employees, controversy over the ongoing recall process is emerging. One liberal organization is saying people have a right to sign more than one recall petition. The state regulators admit it’s true, they have that right and although only one signature per eligible voter is supposed to be counted as vaild, their temporary workers won’t be accountable for finding duplicates.

Huh?

This MacIver News’ report provides the details.

The state board overseeing the potential recall election of Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker tells the MacIver News Service that they will rely upon temporary workers to scrutinize recall petitions and those individuals will not be expected to catch any duplicate signatures submitted by recall organizers.

This revelation comes as one statewide liberal group is actively promoting the collection of duplicate signatures, paving the way for a lengthy process wherein Walker supporters will challenge the validity of the recall petitions.

One Wisconsin Now, a liberal non-profit, posted on its website “you can circulate or sign a recall petition even if you have already signed another recall petition.”

This advice, however, will complicate the signature challenge process and runs counter to the advice of nonpartisan state election regulators.

“While it is not illegal to sign more than once, we do not suggest people sign a second time unless they have good reason to believe the first petition they signed was somehow fraudulent,” Reid Magney, GAB Spokesman.

One Wisconsin Now follows their advice with this disclaimer: “[N]ote, however, that only one signature per person will be counted,”

That is not necessarily true.

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From the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel:

Wisconsin’s largest teachers union has a problem.

A union problem.

This week, National Support Organization, which bills itself as the world’s largest union of union staffers, posted an online notice discouraging its members from seeking work with the Wisconsin Education Association Council.

“Don’t apply for WEAC vacancies!” screams the headline.

The reason for the boycott?

Chuck Agerstrand, president of the National Support Organization, is accusing WEAC officials of “breaching staff contracts and destroying any working relationship with its employees.”

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There’s an old TV saying given to the moment when viewers realize a series has peaked – it’s called “jumping the shark.”  It’s in reference to the fifth season of Happy Days, when the Fonz is waterskiing – complete with leather jacket – and proceeds to jump over a shark.  The scene was so outlandish and ridiculous, that viewers realized the show as creatively bankrupt. The popularity of the series declined from there.

We may have just witnessed the Wisconsin public employee unions’ shark-jumping moment.

The Wisconsin Education Association Council (WEAC) has been organizing its members to show up to school board meetings to protest the cost-saving measures being implemented, thanks exclusively to Gov. Scott Walker’s budget repair law.

WEAC crybaby sessions at local school board meetings are becoming a weekly event.

See EAGtv’s report on the latest episode.

But to WEAC’s dismay, school board members who have been targeted for intimidation are showing up to these meetings prepared for the protests. So are local residents who have had their fill of union bullying.

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Before the Republican takeover of state government, the leaders of the Wisconsin Education Association Council were very influential people who wielded a great deal of political power.

They were extremely well funded by a system that forced schools to deduct union dues from individual teachers, whether they wanted to be members or not. And they used a big chunk of that wealth to pressure state lawmakers into passing union-friendly policies.

Notice we didn’t say “education friendly policies.” Education has very little to do with the teachers union’s agenda. Its main function is to constantly angle for a bigger piece of the taxpayer pie, and WEAC did that very effectively prior to 2011.

All of that became clearer this week when the Wisconsin Government Accountability Board released a report showing that WEAC spent more than any other organization on lobbying state government in 2009-10.

The union spent a total of $2.5 million in those years to wine, dine and twist arms in Madison, according to the Associated Press. That amount was on top of the millions of dollars in campaign contributions WEAC hands out to friendly legislative candidates.

All of that money will buy a lot of influence, particularly when union-friendly Democrats are in power.

What did the union use its influence for? More money to spend on student books, computers and learning programs? Nope.

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They spent well in excess of $15 million and did not win the majority in the State Senate.  Here’s the updated Money Matrix Graphic we produced at the MacIver Institute, which tracked Big Labor’s fund transfers.

As I write in today’s Washington Examiner:

Wisconsin Democrats’ inability to defeat three Republican incumbent state senators in the recent recall elections here in Wisconsin is a devastating loss for Big Labor. These recalls were Big Labor’s last stand and will have national ramifications for years to come…

…The early results have been staggering. Ninety-three school districts have restructured benefit costs, saving taxpayers more than $150 million. If each of Wisconsin’s school districts achieve this level of savings, statewide savings would cross the $500 million mark.

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National and state liberal groups, led primarily by public employee labor unions, have pumped well in excess of $14,000,000 into the Wisconsin state senate recall elections, six of which will take place tomorrow.

-Click to Enlarge-

MacIver News’ staff complied this graphic of this unprecedented spending using official reports on file with the Wisconsin Government Accountability Board(Totals are accurate as of 8/8/11).

These figures include direct contributions from political action committee to candidates, coordinated independent expenditure campaigns, and individual third party expenditures.

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Think the Wisconsin Teachers’ union is worried that Wisconsin’s new labor law will lead to a dramatic decline in union membership? They’re going all in on the August recall campaigns, spending nearly a half million dollars in just one day. For radio ads only. In Wisconsin. Clearly, for now, they have a lot of money to burn. They’re not going to go down without a fight.

[Madison, Wisc...] WEAC, Wisconsin’s largest teachers’union, spent nearly a half million dollars in one day on behalf of Democratic candidates through their political aciton committee, the MacIver News Service has learned.

According to records on file at the Wisconsin Governement Accountability Board, on July 22 WEAC PAC spent  $424,000 on a radio ad buy to support two Democrat State Senators being recalled, and five Democrat candidates who are challenging Republican incumbent Senators.

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“What about the children?” they cried as tens of thousands filled the Wisconsin Capitol Square this spring.

The huge rallies filled with school-skipping teachers have come and gone and now a just-released MacIver Institute analysis of newly negotiated school contracts from this year shows that the leverage provided by Wisconsin Act 10 and the the new law’s ultimate passage has indeed given school districts the ability to find significant savings without firing teachers and without impacting class sizes or course offerings.

Requiring teachers to make modest contributions to health and pension benefits can cut the cost of education by $500 per student in Wisconsin.

Our analysis shows that the recent changes to state law has empowered school districts to secure better deals for their taxpayers. Without impacting class size or course offerings, and without massive layoffs, school districts have already saved $155 million here. thanks to modest concessions from the labor force.

A preliminary estimate based on an analysis of local reports conducted by the MacIver Institute suggests that, if adopted uniformly by every district in Wisconsin, local schools would stand to save $434,232,693.66 through new staff contracts that required the additional contributions to health and retirement benefits.

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Public school officials throughout Wisconsin can move ahead with plans to minimize the impact of pending cuts in state aid, now that the state Supreme Court has dismissed a lower court’s restraining order preventing Gov. Scott Walker’s budget repair bill from becoming law.

Walker’s law severely limits the scope of teachers union collective bargaining in public schools. That was necessary because labor costs, largely tied to collective bargaining agreements, had been dominating school budgets for several years. And union officials around the state had displayed little willingness to accept contract concessions to help school districts save money.

Under the new law, the unions will have no power to interfere with school boards as they unilaterally eliminate labor costs and dedicate the savings to student needs. School boards will be able to dump many labor perks, like automatic annual salary increases for teachers, without laying off as many teachers or cancelling student programs.

Labor officials are accusing Gov. Walker and the legislature of attacking public education by cutting state aid to schools. But by limiting collective bargaining, the Republicans gave local school boards the tools they need to blunt the impact of state budget cuts and meet their basic responsibilities to students.

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The protests in Wisconsin are heating up again and this time the mob is even angrier than before.

Thursday night at the Joint Finance Committee meeting in Madison, law enforcement removed around 30 protesters who repeatedly interrupted the budget-writing panel’s proceedings. The chaos started when an elected member of the  Milwaukee Public Schools board and former University of Wisconsin regent ran up to the committee and began making speeches.

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School choice is on the move in Wisconsin, at least in Milwaukee County.

The state Assembly has approved a bill that will increase the number of voucher students in Milwaukee, and increase the number of private schools they can choose from.

But an idea recently suggested by Gov. Scott Walker, to spread voucher opportunities beyond Milwaukee to Green Bay, Racine and Beloit, received a cool reception from Senate President Mike Ellis, as well as several other Republicans.

Ellis also questioned a reform, embedded in the governor’s budget proposal, that would lift income restrictions from voucher programs so all families would be eligible to participate.

That leads me to wonder if some Republicans, once committed to the concept of public school reform, have lost their nerve in the face of obnoxious union rallies and recall efforts.

I also wonder if Walker might have received a more positive response if he had targeted the entire state for voucher eligibility, in the same manner as Indiana. Only expanding to three cities may not sit well with legislators from areas that would not benefit.

School choice is best for all families and students. Every child is unique, and parents are best equipped to choose a school that fits their needs.

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Several months ago, Education Action Group published a scathing exposé on the Wisconsin Education Association Council-affiliated WEA Trust, a union-contrived insurance entity that is forced upon the majority of Wisconsin schools during collective bargaining negotiations.

It is difficult to determine the extent to which the union benefits from this cozy arrangement, but judging by a similar set-up in Michigan, the union is likely doing very nicely.

In Michigan, the state’s largest teachers union (the Michigan Education Association) owns MESSA, a health insurance company used by the vast majority of public schools in the state.

MESSA has a reputation for being the Cadillac of insurance plans – and for good reason.

When one district successfully switched away from MESSA, it saved big bucks and teachers only lost coverage for “massages, sex-change operations and a treatment for Christian Science practitioners.”

Let that marinate for a moment.

According to the Kalamazoo Gazette, taxpayers were paying for massages and sex-change operations for teachers.  Isn’t that grand?

As MESSA, which gives millions of dollars a year to the teachers union, continues to jack up rates each year, school districts have wisely capped how much they will pay for employee health insurance, allowing districts to control costs. If the union still demands its brand, the teachers end up paying the difference.

Well, the union’s chickens are coming home to roost.

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Union leaders can dress it up and use innocuous-sounding phrases like “ voluntary consumer activism,” but the bottom line is that Wisconsin’s unions are now resorting to thug-like behavior against political opponents, real or imagined.

The state’s largest teachers union, Wisconsin Education Association Council, along with the Green Bay Education Association, Madison Teachers Inc. and a handful of other public employee unions are carrying their fight over collective bargaining to innocent business owners.

News accounts reveal that the Fox Valley chapter of WEAC has e-mailed local businesses, asking them to show their support for collective bargaining privileges by putting a poster in their business’ window. The union’s e-mail suggests the posters will help members with “substantially less discretionary money to spend” know where to shop.

This is a thinly-veiled threat from a bunch of thugs if there ever was one.  First there were the Gangs of New York.  Then there were the Gangs of Chicago.  Now we see the Gangs of Wisconsin.

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The Wisconsin Education Association Council (WEAC) caught the eye of the Landmark Legal Foundation long before they gained national prominence due to their pro-union position around the tense debate currently playing out in Wisconsin. But not only have they recently stepped up to pay some back taxes, presumably due to pressure from Landmark, if Governor Walker is correct, they are also gouging taxpayers for health care costs at the same time they failed to pay the appropriate taxes – and the stance taken by truant Wisconsin teachers appears calculated to allow what some are calling a scam to continue.

In April, the Landmark Legal Foundation asked federal officials to investigate its claim that WEAC failed to report or pay taxes on $430,000 in contributions to the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee between 2000 and 2002 in apparent violation of federal law.

The Wisconsin Education Association Council has voluntarily made $171,091 in payments to the Internal Revenue Service after a review of past federal tax returns, the state’s largest teachers union said Wednesday.

WEAC previously created the WEAC Trust, which, among other things, provides health insurance for Wisconsin school districts.

If the bill proposed by Governor Walker were to pass, the teachers union could still employ collective bargaining for wages but their ability to control the benefits portion of the contract would go away. Walker claims that would immediately reduce health care costs for WI school districts by 68 million dollars. Obviously, it would also impact the WEAC Trust’s bottom-line. (more…)

Much of the current controversy in Wisconsin involves the impending loss of most collective bargaining privileges for state employees, including public school teachers.

The fact is that the Wisconsin Education Association Council, the largest teachers union in the state, has grossly abused that privilege for decades, resulting in the unnecessary siphoning of millions of dollars from Wisconsin public schools.

Under current Wisconsin law, the identity of the insurance company that provides health coverage to school employees is a matter of collective bargaining in each school district.

In the majority of districts around the state, WEAC negotiators have used that law to pressure local school boards into purchasing coverage from WEA Trust, an insurance company established by and closely associated with the union.

WEA Trust offers very comprehensive health coverage, at a very high cost to schools. Most of the districts with the most expensive health premiums in the state are clients of WEA Trust. Most of the districts with the lowest premiums do business with other insurance carriers.

A few dozen districts have managed to dump WEA Trust insurance over the past few years, despite the protests of teachers and their union. Officials from many of those districts say they managed to save at least six figures their first year with a different carrier, and maintained steady rates in subsequent years, while still offering quality health coverage to employees.

Officials from other districts say they’re also eager to dump WEA Trust coverage, but need their employees’ anonymous claim histories from WEA Trust to share with other bidders. Several say they have never requested that information because they were told WEA Trust would punish them by pulling them out of local insurance pools, resulting in skyrocketing premiums.

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