Bob CollinsIt doesn’t appear as though Wisconsin state troopers are going to get a raise.
Like Minnesota, Wisconsin lawmakers find pay raises for government workers can be a third rail. So Republican leaders are vowing to block Gov. Scott Walker’s negotiated 17 percent increase for the state troopers, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Seventeen percent? That’s a lot of money, right?
No.
But troopers said they deserve a substantial pay hike because they have gone years without a boost in pay. Trooper Randy Gordon said in his nine years on the job he’s gotten just one raise. Some of his colleagues make so little they qualify for heating assistance, he said.
Gordon makes $20.25 an hour, 30 cents more than a new hire.
“It really gets a guy perturbed,” he said.
Vos “finds that (proposed raise) intolerable,” Gordon said. “I think it’s intolerable that it’s only 17%. I think it should be higher than that.”
But Republicans who control the Legislature were steadfast in saying they wanted to reject the deal and restart negotiations.
Under the new deal, the starting wage would rise to $21.21.
Senate President Mary Lazich called the pay increases “unreal in the world today.”
