Wisconsin State Senate Republicans Took Hundreds Of Thousands In Government Farm Subsidies 8MAR11

WHAT A SURPRISE, politicians railing about workers and unions costing the taxpayers and the government too much while they are gorging themselves at the corporate agriculture welfare troth pigging down hundreds of thousands  of dollars in taxpayer funds. Two of these three in Wisconsin ( sens sheila e harsdorf and luther olsen) are being targeted for recall because of their support for gov walker's union busting legislation stripping collective bargaining rights from state workers. sen dale w schultz is greedy hypocrite. (See my earlier post DEMOCRATS, LABOR SET SIGHTS ON RECALL OF SIX WISCONSIN REPUBLICANS 11MAR11). 
WASHINGTON -- At least three of the Wisconsin state Senate Republicans currently demanding that public workers sacrifice benefits, wages and even collective bargaining rights for the sake of the budget have applied for and received hundreds of thousands of dollars in federal farm subsidies, a Huffington Post review of state and federal records shows.
From 1995 through 2009, state Sens. Luther Olsen, Dale Schultz and Sheila Harsdorf all had stakes in farms that received between them more than $300,000 in taxpayer funds.
Those federal appropriations had no direct impact on the state’s current budget woes, but the cash spent on those subsidies, which went to support a range of functions -- from soybean production to small hog operations -- could have been used elsewhere, perhaps even in Wisconsin. More than that, critics say, it muddles the notion, pushed by these lawmakers and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R), that only they are serious about reining in an overextended, overspent government.
“Members of both parties ... preach fiscal austerity all the time, but then when it comes to farm subsides going to farmers in their districts, they think the spigot should remain wide open,” said Don Carr, a spokesman and policy adviser for the Environmental Working Group, which tracks and critiques federal farm subsidies.
As Carr acknowledged, there is more than a little irony in the use of government largess by the same senators now demanding that public workers tighten their belts.
Farm subsidies have long been criticized by conservatives and progressives alike as a clear waste of taxpayer money, but supporters of federal farm policy and less partial observers caution that for small farms, taxpayer help is key to survival. In the case of the Wisconsin state legislators, the farms in question seem to be primarily family operations.
On his 2011 financial disclosure form -- obtained by The Huffington Post via a records request with the State of Wisconsin Government Accountability Board -- Olsen lists Riverview Farm in the town of Waushara as a business interest. There are a number of other Olsens listed as partners, with Luther Olsen claiming a 20 percent stake. According to the Environmental Working Group, Riverview Farm in Waushara County has received $58,502 subsidies from 1995 to 2009. Another Riverview Farm in nearby Portage County received $25,730, though there is no word as to whether this is a related entity.

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Olsen lists Sunflower Farm, also in Waushara, among his business activities, as well. That farm received $2,193 in federal subsidies in 1996. The senator’s ownership stake there is 8.3 percent.
Several phone calls to Olsen’s office were not returned.
On his 2011 financial disclosure form, Schultz lists the “Schultz Family Farm” in Sauk County as a business activity. According to the Environmental Working Group, a Dale W. Schultz in Sauk County has been paid $61,171 from in farm subsidies from 2000 to 2009.
Several calls to Schultz's office were not returned.
Harsdorf does not list any farms on her 2010 personal financial disclosure form. But her earlier filings have listed a personal business stake in Trim-Bel Valley Farms, according to records compiled by the Center for Public Integrity.
Trim-Bel Valley Farms is based in Pierce County – Harsdorf’s home. And according to the Environmental Working Group, one Sheila E. Harsdorf had a 50 percent ownership stake in the farm as of 2008. The farm received $194,763 in federal subsidies from 1995 through 2005.
Several calls to Harsdorf's office were not returned.
That local lawmakers are benefiting from federal farm subsidies is nothing new. In South Dakota and Idaho, both Republican and Democratic state Senators have worked in the field when not legislating. Some state legislative calendars have even been designed to accommodate key farming seasons, Carr said.
With respect to Wisconsin, officials with the Department of Agriculture could not immediately say whether the state's federal help was above or below other state averages. A 2009 USDA factsheet showed that the agency spent nearly $314 per Wisconsinite on agricultural and natural resources issues. Wisconsin is one of the top ten agricultural states in the nation, with more than $51.5 billion in annual economic output from that sector.

Democrats, Labor Set Sights On Recall Of Six Wisconsin Republicans

WE can expect corporate America, especially the koch brothers, since they have already paid for gov walker, to fund the gop tea-bagger senators campaigns against their recall by Wisconsin voters. We all have a stake in the outcome, so please donate to the PCCC or the Wisconsin Democratic party if you can.
WASHINGTON -- The chaos that accompanied Wednesday night’s abrupt passage of Gov. Scott Walker's (R-Wis.) controversial anti-collective bargaining legislation gave way on Thursday to a series of strategy sessions by aggrieved parties plotting out a response.
A cadre of labor groups, progressive institutions, and campaign arms began informally coordinating a comprehensive pushback that some described as even more critical than the legislative battle itself. The most dramatic of these moves is acceleration of a campaign to recall Wisconsin Republican state senators who ended up backing not only the collective bargaining bill but also the backdoor parliamentary maneuvers used to pass it.
Union officials and progressive activists on the ground in Wisconsin say that six specific lawmakers have been targeted for recall (before Wednesday night that number had been eight). Of those, three were considered top tier “gets:” Sen. Randy Hopper (District 18) who won his last election by 184 votes, Sen. Alberta Darling (District 8) who won her last election with 51 percent of the vote, and Sen. Dan Kapanke (District 32) who also won his last election with 51 percent of the vote, in a district where President Obama won 61 percent of the vote in 2008. The other three lawmakers on the list were Sen. Robert Cowles (District 2), Sheila Harsdorf (District 10), and Luther Olsen (District 14).
“Without full capitulation this is the best possible political outcome,” said one top-ranking labor official, trying to put a good spin on a damaging development. “It is going to drive [Walker’s] negatives over 65 [percent] and we are looking at possibly winning six recall elections”
Earlier in the day, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka made similar overtures following a speech at the National Press Club. “We are helping to organize the process,” he told a small group of reporters. “They are doing it on the ground there and we are helping them do it on the ground. These are Wisconsinites. They are serious about this. This isn’t us going to them saying maybe we ought to recall, this is them saying to us we are going to recall them.”
In terms of timing, the recall process began well before Wednesday night’s vote. But Walker’s decision to ram through his bill with 14 Senate Democrats still decamped in Illinois added urgency to the effort. In a memo distributed by labor officials on the ground in Wisconsin and passed along to The Huffington Post, it was noted that the Wisconsin Democratic Party had already raised $800,000 for its recall effort, “with nearly $250,000 of that coming since Walker and Republicans’ anti-democratic hijacking of the Senate” on Wednesday. The memo also pointed out that two polls, conducted by Survey USA and paid for by MoveOn.org, had Hopper and Kapanke losing a recall election in their districts, “and that polling was conducted before last night’s … chicanery.”
Grassroots forces aren’t the only ones at play. Officials at various campaign committees in Washington D.C. told The Huffington Post that they too would be lending their resources to the efforts. The Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee was poised to help the Wisconsin State party once signatures were collected, a function that an aide described as a bit of new ground for the committee. “[T]he recall elections that may take place in Wisconsin in fact would be the first recall elections with which the DLCC has been involved.”

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An official with the Democratic Governor’s Association, meanwhile, said that while a recall effort targeting Walker was, by law, only approachable down the road (a lawmaker must be in office a full year before being subjected to a recall), the anti-collective bargaining bill and the governor himself would become fixtures of their political activities going forward.
“We will make him the embodiment of everyone’s worst fears about Republican governors,” the aide said.
Even the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee put out Wisconsin-related releases, cognizant that voter enthusiasm and fundraising dollars would shortly follow. [UPDATE: The DNC put out a statement late Thursday afternoon]. Organizing for America, the Obama campaign arm that engaged in the debate early on, only to downplay its involvement later, had not commented on the Wednesday night theatrics as of Thursday afternoon, though White House Press Secretary Jay Carney called them antithetical to the notion of bipartisan cooperation.
The real driving force, however, remained unions and progressive groups that had latched on to the Wisconsin budget battles before there was national recognition. Adam Green, whose organization, Progressive Change Campaign Committee, had been heavily invested in supporting the quorum break by the 14 Democratic senators said there were no plans to scale back their ambition simply because the bill had passed. Nearly $800,000 had been raised to air the group’s television ad and that money would be spent to keep momentum behind the recall efforts.
“We think of it as providing air cover for the ground troops,” said Green.
Officials with the American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees, meanwhile, huddled for a strategy meeting on Thursday afternoon to discuss not only recall strategy but also how to upend similar anti-union movements across the country. Indeed, while it was demoralizing to see the Wisconsin bill pass, the prevailing fear within the labor community was that without a sufficient punishment, other Republican officials in different states would follow suit.
“I think that we are prepared to fight back like never before,” said Lee Saunders, AFSCME’s Secretary-Treasurer. “This is not just a labor issue but it is a student’s rights and civil rights issue … if we let this trend continue then what will happen next? ... This will not stand. This is not what people expected coming out of the November elections.”

Wis. Assembly Cuts Public Worker Bargaining Rights 10MAR11

WHAT'S next in Madison, the burning of the Reichstag.....er, Statehouse, so Ubervorsteher walker can unleash his National Guard troops on the people of Wisconsin? 

by NPR Staff and Wires

Wisconsin police tried to secure a door inside the state Capitol as thousands of angry people mobbed the area in anticipation of Thursday's Assembly vote.

Morry Gash/AP

Wisconsin police tried to secure a door inside the state Capitol as thousands of angry people mobbed the area in anticipation of Thursday's Assembly vote.

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March 10, 2011

Wisconsin lawmakers voted Thursday to strip nearly all collective bargaining rights from the state's public workers in one of the strongest blows to the power of unions in years.
The state's Assembly passed Republican Gov. Scott Walker's explosive proposal 53-42 Thursday. The state's Senate approved it the night before after using a procedural move to bypass its AWOL Democrats.

Justin Sullivan/Getty Images Wisconsin Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald spoke to reporters after Wednesday's vote in Madison.

Walker says he'll sign the legislation as quickly as possible.
The vote brings a swift end to a standoff over union rights that has rocked Wisconsin and the nation. Tens of thousands of protesters have converged on the state's Capitol for weeks of demonstrations.
The implementation of Walker's proposal will be a key victory for Republicans who have targeted unions amid efforts to slash government spending.
Angry people packed the hallway leading to the Assembly on Thursday. At least 50 protesters were carried out by police, and the building was locked down briefly while officers did a security review.
"The whole world is watching!" protesters shouted outside the Assembly's entrance.
Democratic representatives pounded on the locked door of the chamber before the vote, scheduled for 11 a.m. local time. It wasn't unlocked until around 11:30 a.m.

I applaud the Legislature's action today to stand up to the status quo and take a step in the right direction to balance the budget and reform government.

- Republican Gov. Scott Walker

"What more egregious, illegal, unethical step can be taken to prevent democracy in Wisconsin?" Rep. Donna Seidel (D-Wausau) said as she banged on the door along with her colleagues.
If the bill passes the Assembly as expected, it would head to Republican Gov. Scott Walker for his signature. At a news conference in Milwaukee, the governor said he'll sign the legislation "as quickly as I can legally."
Hours after Senate Republicans passed the bill Wednesday, a crowd of hundreds of protesters swelled to thousands in a rally as large as any seen inside the Capitol in three weeks of demonstrations. At one point, there were so many people pushing their way through the building's entrances that police just gave up trying to stop them.

They did this in a hurry because they knew once the public would find out, they would be furious.

- Democratic Sen. Bob Jauch

Shawn Johnson of Wisconsin Public Radio told NPR that the protesters really didn't see it coming.
"They knew there was going to be a vote on this at some point, but the way that it happened was definitely extraordinary," he said.
The Senate's 14 Democrats had stymied the bill for weeks by leaving the state and preventing the chamber from having enough members present to pass it. Walker introduced the measure to plug a $137 million budget shortfall.
Republicans needed at least one Democrat present for a quorum of 20 in order to take up any measures that spend money. So GOP leaders essentially outmaneuvered the missing Democrats by stripping away pieces of the bill that triggered the rule so that they could vote on the collective bargaining elements.
The entire process happened very quickly, Johnson said.
"At about 4 o'clock central time, Republican leaders said they were going to convene a special committee to consider this plan," he said. "Less than two hours later, that committee met and passed the bill, and just a few minutes after that, Republican senators met and voted 18-1 in favor of the plan without any debate and without a single Democrat in the room."
Spectators flooded the Senate gallery, screaming "You are cowards" at lawmakers as they voted. Republican Sen. Dale Schultz cast the lone no vote.

Justin Sullivan/Getty Images Democrats' chairs sat empty during the Senate vote on Gov. Scott Walker's legislation that would restrict collective bargaining for most government workers in Wisconsin. Republicans voted 18-1 to pass the bill.

"I voted my conscience, which I feel reflects the core beliefs of the majority of voters who sent me here to represent them," Schultz said in a statement.
Walker said Democrats had three weeks to debate the bill and were offered repeated opportunities to come back, but refused.
"I applaud the Legislature's action today to stand up to the status quo and take a step in the right direction to balance the budget and reform government," Walker said in a statement.
Senate Democrats met late Wednesday night to discuss when they might return. They said they would not be back Thursday, but gave no indication when they might come home.
"We are going to watch and see how the Assembly unfolds," said Sen. Spencer Coggs. "There will be fireworks. There will be a lot of people at the Capitol, and so it will be hard to get in and out of the Capitol."
Thursday's vote is something of a foregone conclusion, Johnson said, given that Assembly lawmakers passed a similar version of the bill a few weeks ago. But he said the recent maneuverings at the Capitol make it worth watching.

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Until Wednesday's Senate action, it appeared the standoff would persist until Democrats returned to Madison from their self-imposed exile in Illinois.
"In 30 minutes, 18 state senators undid 50 years of civil rights in Wisconsin. Their disrespect for the people of Wisconsin and their rights is an outrage that will never be forgotten," Democratic Senate Minority Leader Mark Miller said. "Tonight, 18 Senate Republicans conspired to take government away from the people."
Speaking by phone, Democratic Sen. Bob Jauch said the vote left people in shock.
"They did this in a hurry because they knew once the public would find out, they would be furious," Jauch said.
Republicans said this was their only option, because they were convinced Democrats were prepared to stay away from the Senate indefinitely, and that it followed the letter of the law.
Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald said he reviewed the plan with the Legislature's lawyers and budget specialists, and they advised him "that this proposal would not trigger the special quorum requirement."
But Democrats contended that it happened so fast that it violated Wisconsin law. Assembly Minority Leader Peter Barca, the lone Democrat present on the special committee that put the bill in position to pass the Senate, shouted that the meeting was a violation of the state's open meetings law.
"The jig is now up," Barca said. "The fraud on the people of Wisconsin is now clear."
The Senate's chief clerk said hours later that the meeting was properly held.
Sen. Chris Larson said that when he and fellow Democrats got wind of what was happening, they tried to rush back to Madison.
"Personally, I tried to drive as fast as I could to get up there," Larson said. "My colleagues tried to get ready in order to do the same, but there was no chance with the very short time frame. They knew what they were doing; they intended to deceive the people."
David Newby, past president of Wisconsin State AFL-CIO, said union members are not going to sit back and let it happen.
"I'm ashamed for our state, but it means that we've got a protracted fight ... that is not going to go away," he said. "Once they pass this bill, that's just the beginning of the fight."
Walker had repeatedly argued that collective bargaining is a budget issue, because his proposed changes would give local governments the flexibility to confront the budget cuts needed to close the state's $3.6 billion deficit. He has said that without the changes, he may have needed to lay off 1,500 state workers and make other cuts to balance the budget.
The measure forbids most government workers from collectively bargaining for wage increases beyond the rate of inflation unless approved by referendum. It also requires public workers to pay more toward their pensions and double their health insurance contributions, a combination equivalent to an 8 percent pay cut for the average worker. Police and firefighters are exempt.
Despite being outfoxed, Democrats see an upside to the battle over bargaining rights.
Johnson said Democrats think the level of public energy could translate to the ballot box.
"Already, there are recall petitions being circulated against eight of the Republicans who voted for this plan. I should also mention that there are recalls being organized against some of the Democratic senators who left town," Johnson said.
"But Democrats think that overall, this is an issue that energizes their base certainly more than it was energized in last year's election."
Material from The Associated Press was used in this report.

http://www.npr.org/2011/03/10/134419331/protests-swell-after-wis-senate-curbs-union-rights?sc=nl&cc=brk-20110310-1652