Earlier today I posted the letter from the Oshkosh City Council to the legislature asking it to stop trying to kill public worker collective bargaining rights for several reasons, including that the Budget Repair Bill posed a threat to its transit system. The federal mass transit subsidy program for the state's bus systems require that there has been no reduction in existing collective bargaining rights for transit workers as a condition for the funding. The U.S. Department of Labor has to certify the continuation of collective bargaining to the U.S. Department of Transportation before funds for mass transit are released each year. This will not affect Milwaukee, as the busses there are operated by a private firm that contracts with Milwaukee. But it potentially affects a number of other city transit systems. Here is an analysis by the Legislative Fiscal Bureau that states the loss to Wisconsin mass transit could be as much as $47 million dollars just this next year, including a $7.1 million dollars hit to public transportation in Madison. This concern was raised over two weeks ago by Representative Grigsby (D-18) of Milwaukee. Here is the letter from the Legislative Fiscal Bureau in reponse to her concern.
To my knowledge, neither the Governor nor any GOP legislator has come out with information to dispel the concern over the loss of federal transit funds.
Perhaps the GOP is now thinking it will balance the budget on the back of bus riders as well as school children, teachers and public workers?
No comments:
Post a Comment