Submitted by Paul, Jan 8, 2008 17:29

Why are public employee benefits, on average, higher than private ones in Wisconsin? Maybe because public employees are willing to accept lower salaries -- and cost-of-living increases that do not even keep pace with inflation -- in exchange for healthcare coverage for their families and retirement benefits for themselves and their spouses. There has also been a very big scandal in recent years in Milwaukee County concerning, I believe, automatic pension fund benefit increases and excessive early retirement payouts for County Board members and other County employees. Might this scandal have skewed the average benefit figures cited above -- perhaps misleading this columnists' non-local (i.e., non-metropolitan Milwaukee) readers? Of course, Wisconsin's public employees also still benefit -- in comparison with those in other states, at least, but far less than they used to -- from their still relatively strong union representation.

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