Journal Sentinel Says "Repair This Bill"

Movement by the paper's editorial board.

It still has praise for Walker, and I advise reading it in its entirety, but these paragraphs depart from from earlier editorial comment:

"Gov. Scott Walker's budget-repair bill is flawed. We support the governor's aim to rein in labor costs but cannot support this bill as written.

"The Legislature should kill some of the most egregious provisions and break out others for further debate..."

"Walker and his Republican allies in the Legislature were wrong to try to bust public-employee unions. Workers have a fundamental right to organize, even when it's inconvenient for the rest of us...

"Even worse, the bill would apply the new rules unevenly. Police officers, firefighters, sheriff's deputies and state troopers would be exempt. With big cuts coming in state aid, municipalities must control labor costs, but exempting police and fire departments makes that nearly impossible. In Milwaukee, 65% of salaries and benefits flow to those two budget lines.

"The more radical of Walker's collective bargaining proposals should be killed. The others should cover all unions. Proposals that amount to policy should be stripped out. These include a provision to allow the Department of Administration to sell heating, cooling and power plants without bids and another that would give broad rule-making authority for the Medicaid program to the Department of Health Services...

"Walker should repair the budget-repair bill. Better yet, he should do so with the help of the Democrats. There is still time."

Walker should pay attention to the words and the process by which debate changes minds and moves positions.