Wisconsin Assembly

To prevent the approval of a Republican bill on the Wisconsin public union benefits, the elected Democrats in the Senate fled to Illinois in order to prevent the quorum for this kind of voting. As the bill changes funds administrations the minimum of presence needed is 20 politicians. On the occasion, 19 Republican senators remained in Wisconsin while 14 Democrats left in protest. The solution to terminate the Democrats stalemate was to separate this case and the Republicans voted on it in less than half an hour. The bill passed by 18-1.

Wisconsin Assembly

Besides not having the necessary number of politicians present for the voting, the Republicans met late on Wednesday night and none of the Democrats were there. So the voting was made without any sort of discussion on the matter. The Democrats were in Illinois for three weeks when the Republicans decided to vote on the “budget repair bill”

On other sorts of bills, the ones that don’t appropriate funds, the presence required in Assembly is smaller than the one in this case. Some of the benefits proposed in the bill by Gov. Scott Walker are increased health care and pension costs for workers in the public sector. On the other hand, the main problem in the bill is the limitation on the employees bargaining rights.

Senator Mark Miller, a Monona Democrat, said “Eighteen Senate Republicans conspired to take government away from the people. In 30 minutes, 18 state senators undid 50 years of civil rights in Wisconsin”. To protest against the senators’ action, 7,000 people, politicians or not, gathered by the Capitol. Becky Jenn, a speech pathologist from Madison, said “I’m enraged. I’m horrified by the broken moral compass this shows”.

Gov. Walker agreed with the Republican attitude with the argument that this bill will make it possible to balance the state’s budget. Walker is known by his opinion on decreasing union bargaining rights since he’s been in office. “The action today will help ensure Wisconsin has a business climate that allows the private sector to create 250,000 new jobs,” said Walker in a statement after the decision was made.