Four of the six Republican State Senators up for recall elections in Wisconsin won on Tuesday, thwarting Democratic efforts to gain control of the State Senate.

MacIver News’ Bill Osmulski reports from Milwaukee

Will Be In Effect Wednesday, June 29th

On Tuesday, June 28, 2011, the Wisconsin Secretary of State’s office published Act 10, the law that included provisions to limit public sector unions’ ability to collectively bargain. The office says the law will be in effect starting Wednesday.

There weren’t any cameras or fanfare when Secretary Doug La Follette enrolled the law.

“It was business as usual,” Susan Churchill, Deputy Secretary of State, told the MacIver Institute.

Governor Walker signed Act 10 on March 11th. Secretary of State Doug La Follette decided to wait the full 10 working days allowed by law before enrolling it. That was originally scheduled to happen on March 25th, and the law would then be in effect on March 28th.

However, Dane County Judge Mary Ann Sumi placed a temporary restraining order on the Secretary of State from publishing the law. The controversy got even more convoluted when the legislative reference bureau, not named in the TRO, published the law on March 25th anyway, and the Department of Administration considered that sufficient to enforce it.

Sumi, again, took action to block the law, this time making the restraining order permanent. All this put Act 10 on a course to the Supreme Court.

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The Recall Dave Hansen Committee went to court Monday seeking an injunction against the state Democratic Party. People who had signed the petition said they were receiving harassing phone calls from the party. The judge sided with the Democratic Party because the committee did not properly serve the request.

As the Wisconsin Supreme Court race looks to be decided by just a matter of a few hundred votes, questions naturally arise about potential improprieties that may have been conducted in an effort to “get out the vote.” One such instance occurred in Madison where two taxi cab companies decided to offer free rides as part of a “Democracy in Motion” effort to “support our community by helping people get to the polls.”

The cab companies Union Cab Coop and Badger Cab offered free rides to the polls by request in the Dane County communities of:

• Middleton (Kloppenburg: 68%)
• Monona (Kloppenburg: 75%)
• Shorewood (Kloppenburg: 84%)
• City of Madison (Kloppenburg: 82%)
• Blooming Grove (Kloppenburg: 74%)
• Burke (Kloppenburg: 60%)
• Maple Bluff (Kloppenburg: 59%)
• Fitchberg (Kloppenburg: 68%)

Seems rather benign on the surface, but when one considers the areas in which these cabs served, they voted for the JoAnne Kloppenburg to the tune of 79%.

According to Union Cab Coop, they brought 102 people to the polls yesterday. When Media Trackers contacted Badger Cab they had not compiled the exact numbers but estimates were that they brought “around 50 people” to the polls.

Despite this “non-partisan” facade, Union Cab Coop has posted on their website a series of statements that reveal that there may have been more than meets the eye for these friendly free rides.

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For the last several weeks, we have pointed out that the union fight in Wisconsin is more about union power and union dues than the actual members. It was also noted how unions were rushing back to get contracts signed before Scott Walker’s new law took effect.

Now, via Piece of Work In Progress comes irrefutable evidence that some unions in Wisconsin are so desperate to secure continued dues payments before Scott Walker’s union reform law takes effect that they are more than giving management everything it wants—at least one union actually gave management more than it was asking for—at the expense of its own members.

What you are about to hear is the audio of a portion of a March 15th meeting among the Sauk County, Wisconsin Board of Supervisors. The purpose of that portion of the meeting was to discuss the tentatively agreed to contracts with the SEIU and several AFSCME locals.

At that session, supervisors discussed ratification of proposed 33-month contracts for five separate bargaining units:

• AFSCME Local 3148 – Sauk County Health Care Center
• AFSCME Local 252 – Sauk County Sheriff’s Department (non-sworn employees)
• AFSCME Local 360 – Sauk County Highway Employees
• SEIU- Healthcare Wisconsin
• Wisconsin Professional Police Association (WPPA) – Clerical Unit

On the audio, Sauk County Corporation Counsel Todd Liebman is heard explaining how, prior to Scott Walker, the unions and the County were at “loggerheads” and heading to interest arbitration. Then, within the last month, the unions offered to accept the County’s final offers. To take it even further, Liebman explains, the SEIU came in and actually offered more concessions.

However, given the uncertainty of the new budget repair bill, the offers were initially rebuffed. Then, following Scott Walker’s signing of the new law, Liebman explains, one of the union business agents came to him and offered the county “carte blanche with regard to the economic conditions of employment.” (more…)

Administration officials estimate that securtiy costs for the first two weeks of the protests could be as high as five milliion dollars.

Administration Secretary Mike Huebsch announced that figure when testifying in a court hearing Wednesday. Union leaders have gone to court to force the state to remove the securitiy measures put in place this week.

The $5 million figure is for the period before enhanced security measures were established this week–measures that have been of little help to lawmakers like Senator Grothman, who speaks from experience when talking about the unruliness of the protesters.