Today I read a letter from a teacher in Wisconsin posted in the Isthmus, a Madison weekly. The teacher was addressing the uncertainty she would be facing if the budget cuts outlined in Gov Scott Walker's Budget Repair Bill are passed. She'll be facing a cut of about $400 a month, or $4,800 a year on a $32,000 a year salary. She'll no longer be able to eat out or buy new clothes or have a drink with friends every now and then.
I couldn't afford those things for years either. But I didn't have a job where my predecessors had, in good faith, bargained lower pay in exchange for benefits. I don't know how things are where you live, but from talking with teachers here and talking with my family members who are teachers, teachers actually buy a lot of the school supplies out of their own pockets because schools are so underfunded. I'm not just talking pencils and paper, but toilet paper and cleaning supplies. They won't be able to furnish these supplies any more if their salaries are whittled even further.
Don't get me wrong. I do think they should have to pay more for health care and retirement, but the increase should be gradual. The increases in Wisconsin will be in the neighborhood of 10% with some being a little more and some being a little less. I know I would have trouble if I suddenly had that much additional money taken out of my check each month.
But even more than that, if you look at it from an overall economic perspective, we have about 300,000 state workers. For each one of them, their discretionary income is going to shrink. That means less money being spent at local mom and pop businesses (we have a lot of them here in Wisconsin) and less money in sales tax. It could also mean that some of those small businesses won't make it, which means more job losses.