Gutting the union has nothing to do with the budget

We knew this all along, but the Wisconsin State Senate confirmed it last night.

CHICAGO — A bill sharply curtailing collective bargaining rights for government workers in Wisconsin is due for a vote in the State Assembly on Thursday morning, where it is all but sure to pass. The State Senate approved similar legislation Wednesday with only Republican members casting votes; the chamber’s Democratic minority, who fiercely oppose the measure, remain out of the state.

The main provisions of the legislation, which increases health care and pension costs for public sector employees in the state as well as limits their bargaining rights, were also part of a larger budget bill that was passed by the Assembly last month, so final passage of this separate bill is considered a foregone conclusion.

The legislation was separated from the budget measure on Wednesday to break a three-week stalemate created when the Democratic senators all went to Illinois to deny the chamber the 20-member quorum required to take up bills that appropriate funds.

The quorum requirement for other kinds of legislation is smaller, and the Republicans’ 19 seats are enough for those measures. In the Assembly, the Republican majority is large enough to achieve a quorum for any kind of bill.

Once the bill was separated, the Republicans pushed the measure through the Senate in less than half an hour by a vote of 18-1, without any debate on the floor or a single Democrat in the room.

Democrats in the State Assembly complained bitterly, and protesters, who had spent many days at the Capitol, continued their chants and jeers.

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The bill makes significant changes to most public-sector union rules, limiting collective bargaining to matters of wages and limiting raises to changes in the Consumer Price Index unless the public approves higher raises in a referendum. It requires most unions to hold votes annually to determine whether most workers still wish to be members. And it ends the state’s collection of union dues from paychecks.

Wisconsin’s battle has been the leading edge of a wider fight over public workers and collective bargaining across the country. Similar, if somewhat less dramatic, fights have played out in statehouses in places like Ohio, Michigan, Iowa and Indiana, and more are expected.

By decoupling this from anything having to do with fiscal legislation, the vote proves that Gov. Walker and his state GOP allies have been lying all along. But shedding integrity, as Steven Benen writes, is apparently no big deal.

Of course, for Republicans, it was a worthy trade off -- they traded their integrity and credibility for a bill to gut Wisconsin's public-sector unions. To far-right officials, it was a sacrifice they were happy to make.

We'll have to wait and see how good Wisconsin voters' memories are.