SEA NEWSLETTER
STATE ENGINEERING ASSOCIATION VOLUME XXXII ISSUE 5 JUNE,2002
4510 REGENT STREET MADISON, WI 53705 (608) 233-4696
FROM THE PRESIDENT
We had our largest turnout to date for a Visit the Hill Day. My thanks to the
members who
attended and helped make this event a success. Some new faces which is good
because
it continues to build our organizations ability to be involved in the political
process. We are
also developing a commitment to being heard on the issues. It is clear from our
discussions with our legislative representatives that they are not being
informed about the
impacts the decisions they make are having on the agencies where we work. We
must
keep involved with the legislative process. Remember to follow up with emails
and phone
calls to your representatives. When they are back in your town campaigning take
some
time to be involved.
We don't expect bargaining to continue until the budget repair bill is
completed.
There appears to be some confusion about the recent Unit Clarification case
decision.
Let me review and summarize what has happened.
. Early 1990's Engineering Survey
. OER creates Eogineering Specialist Classification and moves Tech 4, 5,6
. 1994 WSEU files Unit Clarification with WERC
. 1994 to 1998 SEA and WSEU litigate case in front of NERC
. 1998 to 2002 WERC reviews and develops finding and conclusion
. 2002 WERC concluded ~ SEA positions should be moved to WSEU
. 2002 SEA appealed the move of the two positions - WERC denied appeal
. Unit Clarification case between SEA and WSEU done
In April of 2002 OER and DOT BHRS met and discussed the case. They decided a review
of all Engineering Specialists PO's Senior and below should be done. OOT BHRS and
OER have undertaken this "mini engineering survey". SEA and WSEU are not involved in
this, although we both have the potential to gain or lose members. Management has
I been calling this a matter between SEA and WSEU - it is not. It is strictly a management
issue. SEA reminds members to make sure your PO's are up to date -- they should reflect
what work you are doing. That has been our only involvement. After this "mini engineering
survey" is completed we may be involved if members want to appeal management's
findings.
Continue to be professionally and technically the best at your jobs - it's how we can best
I serve the taxpayers and ourselves! The Association is YOU! Your participation is critical
to the success of the Association.
Respectfully,
Timothy R. Hanley, SEA President
LEGISLATIVE UPDATE
by Dismas Becker
We are now in the last 5 months of the
biennium. In May the legislature will
adjourn for the biennium with the possible
exception of special sessions called by the
Governor. I do not think we have to worry
about special sessions after May. Both the
governor and the legislators will be too
concerned with their elections.
Within these remaining months the
legislature has to balance a deficit budget,
do the redistricting of the state (the latter is
due in February by order of the Federal
Courts) and approve contracts that have
been settled. Besides these three pressing
tasks the legislators will attempt to pass
some of their favorite pieces of legislation.
Everything done between now and June will
be done with special consideration of their
bid for reelection.
NEGOTIATIONS?
How does this all affect our negotiations?
The fact that the state is looking at a deficit
obviously will be used to pressure its
employees to make sacrifices. Sacrifices
would be easier to make if there were a fair
exchange for those sacrifices.
SEA has been asked not to use the press or
go to the press with matters dealing with our
negotiations. DER is so concerned about
this that they inferred that our day on the
Hill was a violation of that agreement.
Despite their concern, the reality is that in a
democratic society, constituents always have
the right to speak to their legislators. This is
not the same as talking to the press.
On the other hand the governor does not
hesitate to talk to the press about how we
will all have to make sacrifices to help us
out of this mess. The Governor told the
press that even if we "...shut down
government for a year.. ." we still would not
make up the shortfall. Isn't that using the
press to bring governments negotiating
position into public favor?
The shortfall is real. The legislature and the
governor do have a difficult task to make
ends meet. While we can sympathize with
their plight, the burden of resolve should not
rest on the backs of the employees.
In bad times we all are pressured to make
hard decisions. Usually we seek financial
help by making loans. The state does not
have that option since they did not wait till
hard times to borrow. When the economy
was good and the state had large surpluses,
the state borrowed instead of paying off its
debt. These were decisions in which the
workers had no voice.
LEGISLATIVE SESSION
The legislature will resume it activities on
January 22. How they will meet this crisis is
yet to be seen. The last time it happened, a
surtax was introduced. We survived that
without making the workers carry the whole
burden.
There are obligations that government has to
its citizens, which would not allow the
curtailing of human services. The
legislators will have to reexamine its
priorities. The task is difficult. All we can
hope for is that it will not just be a partisan
free for all.
The right for each of our members to
participate in this process has not been taken
away. Each of us should communicate to
his/her legislators what he/she thinks is best
for everyone.
STATE ENGINEERING ASSOCIATION - JUNE
Legislative Report/Sermon May 2002
Larry Legro 2nd VP
How many of you have been lied to at one
time or another and did not like it? Well,
the US House and senate people did not like
it when Clinton lied and then the House
Republicans along with the US Attorney
General spent millions trying to eliminate
him, but could not. What is worse?, the
perception of a President who lies and gets
away with it, or spending $40 plus million
of US tax dollars trying to prove it?, AND
It did not "suck seed" did it? Which is
worse? The witch hunt or the millions
wasted? Or both?
Do you like it when the state legislature,
your employer, or others you work with, or
interact with daily a1so lie, cheat and abuse
taxpayer dollars? Well I don't and I do not
care who does it! I am getting a bit tired of
all the corruption going on in the US,
especially in its politics Need I remind
everyone of Enron, Mary Panzer, Brian
Burke, Clinton, John Norquist and his tryst
with which he will spend his campaign war
chest to settle with the victim (what's wrong
with this picture?), the Milwaukee early
retirement scam, practically every politician
on earth, and the list goes on and on.
Most of you all know how our system works
and it must end, i.e. Government For Sale to
the highest contributors has got to end.
Special interests have got to be reigned in.
If you have not written to your legislators or
congressmen, or gotten involved in our
Association, the State Engineers Association
(SEA), please do not call us and complain
(i.e. bitch!) about your lack of a raise or
contract, and please do not tell me that you
are NOT being communicated to properly.
You all get the same newsletter, READ IT!
PARTICIPATE! SEA functions as well as
its members participate. WE need new
bodies to step up and become involved.
Startlingly enough, the 3rd Visit the Hill Day
was able to involve over 85 members (from
the signup list) and there had to be at least
15 who missed signing this list, a good
showing, but more of you needed to come.
If you are unhappy with what is occurring,
too bad. We work hard for SEA. Maybe
you should tell some of us that you
appreciate what we do once in a while. Our
annual meeting of all the members is
occurring the weekend of October 12, 2002
at the Holiday acres Resort in Rhinelander.
I expect to see more than the usual 50 to 100
members attend. Remember the elections in
this state will occur in November of2002
and this might be a good place to determine
who you will vote for... .and PLEASE
VOTE! This counts as being involved.
Writing to your elected leaders AND voting
is important. They know who votes.
You can think about this: should you vote
for the "tax and spend liberals"? Or the
"borrow and spend" conservatives? I plan
to vote for the Governor candidate that vows
to straighten out this state, and presently the
only one who meets this challenge, at least
so he says, is the brother of a former
governor. Let me also make it clear that this
$1.1 billion deficit is a piece of cake. The
tobacco money has already bailed this
legislature out of2001 to 2002's shortfall.
The second year of the biennium is worse.
AND... .the 2003-2005 deficit is predicted to
be even worse yet. Why? How did we get
into this mess? Two words: Unfunded
Liabilities. Wisconsin's big debts will
become due as time passes unless things are
done now to lower them. Sure it is nice to
have new prisons, schools, office buildings,
roads, etc, but, you cannot keep deferring
the cost to the future. You have to live
within your budget. Governor McCallum
tells us this, and then increases his salary by
$9000, buys $80,000 worth of office
furniture for his Milwaukee office, allows
the legislature to spend $600,000 on legal
bills for the Caucus investigations (contrary
to being told by his attorney general that
payments such as these are illegal), and then
not allowing the same attorney general to
sue to stop the payments, while more money
is spent trying to keep this all a big secret.
Not enough examples?, then how about the
legislature through it leaders attempting to
STEAL YOUR RETIREMENT MONEY?,
and though not "suck seeding" the first time
was able to "suck seed" (succeed) the second
to the tune of $200 million dollars credit to
this account (ACT II-which was signed by
Tommy Thompson). You all better keep an
eye on things of this nature as it will affect
you in the long term (at your retirement).
SEA has spent much money and time
defending these actions. None of you are
going to like any of this if there is no money
left in YOUR retirement due to the theft of
those funds by some future legislature or
legislative action.
Regarding your Health Insurance: from the
Appleton Post Crescent: "We are benefit
rich and salary poor. Benefits are consuming
all of our available resources." Tell that to
John Gard from Peshtigo, who thinks that
we do not pay anything, not one dime into
our health benefit. The people in the
Northern part of our state do not get dental
benefits and pay additional to supplement
that, and most employees do have a partial
premium or a co-pay here and there. The
Green Bay New Chronicle story on this
(4/1/02 by Bill LuMaye) even goes as far as
comparing the average wage of a person in
WI as being $28,066, while that of a
government employee is $30,468, but he
fails to mention that a legislator like John
Gard who he defends in this story, makes
minimum starting pay of $44,000, PLUS the
tax free per diems that they so enjoy. They
also get the .345 mileage rates; AND the
same health AND retirement benefits as the
average government employee! If I lived in
Green Bay and read this garbage, I would let
Mr. LuMaye know the truth. This really
chaps my hide! Bashing state employees is
not the answer. In fact send him a copy of
this for me will you Green Bay peoples?
The Governor is a year behind on the state
budget, bargaining with employees is NOT
occurring, but...he has called a special
session of the legislature to talk about the
deer herd and Chronic wasting disease! I
think that the legislature will be in session
from now until the November
elections are
over, it is the only way that this legislature
can avoid going in front of the judge in the
caucus scandal/investigation. As long as
they are in session, the are safe. But once
out of session, it is straight to the judge.
From the Wispolitics.com website regarding
the known outbreak ifi hundreds of imported
deer and elk in 1999: "Unfortunately
DA TCP set up an advisory committee ,made
up of game farm owners and operators
including a large contributor to Thompson,
who came up with voluntary control
measures that do not test all dead animals
for Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD)."
This problem was known about in 1999
when George Meyer ran DNR and Tommy
Thompson ignored it.
Now it is a big deal, even without a budget,
or contracts in place.
I forgot to mention earlier that spending
taxpayer dollars for legislators and
legislative aids brings new meaning to the
term putting a ".bill" on the Governor's desk.
Senator Bob Jauch (Superior) and member
of the Senate Conference committee and the
Senate version of the Biennium budget:
"The next Governor will have a very
difficult time balancing the 2003-05 budget.
Then we'll see if anybody is willing to vote
to real1y cut spending or provide adequate
revenue to maintain basic state services."
When your only tool is a hammer, all your
problems start to look like nails, huh?
For the record:
"I am pleased that the clerks have complied with the
court's order in a
timely fashion and appreciate their hard work to pull this
information
together. It is my hope that this matter could be
resolved so, so both state
taxpayers and taxpayers of Dane and Milwaukee
counties can be spared further
expense."
Scott Jensen. May 10, 2002
'While I have paid. and will continue to pay any legal
bills that I incur from
my personal funds, I am confident that the hard working
legislative staff are
fully cooperating in this matter."
Chuck Chvala, May 10, 2002
HEALTH INSURANCE SURVEY OF STATE PLANS
The Wisconsin Coalition of Annuitants
is conducting a survey of the State Health
Insurance Plans to better communicate your
concerns to the ETF Group Insurance Board.
We have had concerns of high cost of
health insurance and range of benefits
offered by state approved plans. An ad hoc
committee has been established to research &
study your concerns, the availability of
insurance plans, range of benefits available
and the relations between costs & benefits.
The Committee is requesting our
assistance in collecting your concerns
about the health insurance plans offered
by the State. To help in that effort,
please complete the questionnaire included
in this Newsletter and return it to your
SEA Section President or the SEA Office
by August 9, 2002 by hard copy or email.
Thank you for your help.
Melvin B. Sensenbrenner,
SEA Retirement & Health
Insurance Representative
ETF GROUP INSURANCE BOARD - APRIL 16,2002
The Group Insurance Board established
the Dual Choice period as October 7 through
October 25, 2002 for the year 2003 health
plan selection period.
The ETF Group Insurance Bd. voted to
proceed with the national program called
Leap Frog, which proposes that we should
reward health care providers when they
provide quality care. SEA has also
included a request that ETF join the
Leap Frog system in our insurance demands
for 2003, which were submitted on April 15,
2002.
A new system of settling health insur-
ance claims is being considered by the ETF
Group Insurance Board. It is an Independent
Review Organization (IRO} which has no finan-
cial interest in an HMO or Board that has
denied a claim over $250.00. All of ETF
contracts would have to be modified to
permit the use of IRO reviews~ An IRO
review would not take effect until the HMO
grievance procedure has been completed.
With the IRO process under the Standard
Plan, there would be no review conducted by
the ETF Group Insurance Board. Currently,
they are not sure if the IRO review world
meet the Wisconsin Statutes.
The Board reviewed the Actuaries Report
on the effect of proposed changes to the
2003 guidelines for HMO proposals and changes
to co-pays for 2003.
The alternative voted in by the Group
Insurance Board was the following increases
in co-pay on drugs and the maximums for
single & family plans for 2003:
2003 - Generic: $5.00 co-pay; Brand name: $17.25 c
Single Plans: Maximum $300.00/year
Family Plans: Maximum $600.00/year
One other major change to the proposed
2003 guidelines was increasing the maximum
benefit from 1 million dollars to 2 million
dollars. The actuary indicated that this
year they may see two claims exceeding the
1 million dollar maximum.
Melvin B. Sensenbrenner,
SEA Retirement & Health
Insurance Representative